Around A Coruña

La Coruña is located on the north coast of Galicia, the Spanish region to the north of Portugal, it has a strong Celtic heritage and boasts the oldest Roman lighthouse in the world.

Galicia has a wealth of buildings featuring most of the architectural styles found in Europe ranging from neo-classical and baroque to Romanesque and renaissance. But this region also has a particular approach to constructing balconies known locally as “galerias” (nothing more than a balcony enclosed in glass) and A Coruna is the best when it comes to these design features, which is why it is also known as the “glass city”.

Today we decided that we were going to bike our planned site-seeing route as La Coruna has a beautiful bike path that follows the coast from the Saint Anton Castle all the way to Monte de San Pedro and beyond.

Bikes all adjusted and maps in hand we set off for the Tower of Hercules and the Sculptural Park that surrounds it.

The Tower of Hercules has served as a lighthouse and landmark at the entrance of La Coruña harbour in north-western Spain since the late 1st century A.D. when the Romans built the Farum Brigantium. The Tower, built on a 57 metre high rock, rises a further 55 metres, of which 34 metres correspond to the Roman masonry and 21 meters to the restoration directed by architect Eustaquio Giannini in the 18^th century, who augmented the Roman core with two octagonal forms. Immediately adjacent to the base of the Tower, is a small rectangular Roman building. The site also features a sculpture park, the Monte dos Bicos rock carvings from the Iron Age and a Muslim cemetery.

From here we followed the bike path past La Coruña’s city beach, which is a beautiful 1.4km-long protected sweep of sand with decent surfing waves named Playa del Orzán at its east end and Playa de Riazor at the west, all the way to Monte Saint Pedro stopping several places along the way to admire the scenery.