If you think of Galicia, in their landscapes, probably the first thing that comes to mind is your sinuous coastline, your beaches and cliffsserpentant channels such as the Sil River as it passes through the Ribeira Sacra, castrosleafy Atlantic forests, grasslands with cattle … The list is extensive (and diverse), but probably the olive groves are not included, a stamp that usually associates more to the peninsular south. It was not always the case. There are indications that Galicia had an interesting relationship with the cultivation of the olive trees that can go back to the times of Gallaecia.
When that link declined and what were the causes of the sunset and that the olive tree does not prosper are issues that still generate debate among experts.
Olivos in Galicia? Yes. And its relationship comes from afar, it is rich and has inspired researchers who have identified in Galician lands A wide catalog of unique native olive varieties in the world. The indications are suggestive, although I recognized years ago The historian Lourenzo Fernández during a days held in Pontevedra and focused precisely on the olive trees, shadows are still in that bond. “There is no specific historical, nor bibliographic research that will address the presence of Olivos in Galicia,” explained.
Looking at the Roman Gallaecia. The link between Galicia and the olive tree can be traced at least Roman Gallaecia. In the middle of the last century, during an excavation in an area of Vigo that is called precisely Oliveira, archaeologists discovered a Roman deposit which included bricks, bases, a mortar, mills, amphorae … and an oil press, among other vestiges.
“It is thought that it could be a villa or factoring by the oleic press found, the only example appeared in Galicia. The possible relationship between the obtaining of oil and the olive tree in Vigo was also pointed out, in ancient times, with the activity that would give name to the place,” Explain The Quiñones de León Museum, where the remains rest, although those responsible recognize that the scarcity of remains of oil and amphorae lamps in the environment can be interpreted as a “lack of consumption.”
Leaving its mark. Vigo’s is not the only proof of the interesting historical link between Olivo and Galicia. There are ethnographic studies that show that in the region there are dozens and tens of place names related to olive trees, olive groves, oil and similar references. Years ago at least 70 were counted. The CSIC has also identified about twenty varieties of native olive trees, unique in the world, and there is a record of specimens standing from the 18th century, the oldest in the community that are still alive, according to a analysis done years ago.
A “very present” crop in Galicia. The presence of olive trees in Galicia put it in value since The industry itself to the organisms public. “The olive culture was very present in Galicia since the time of the Romans. The primitive settlers ate olives, although they did not know the methods of extraction of the oil. The Romans are those that introduce the knowledge of these methods that are transmitted by the territory. Galicia became one of the conquered territories of which the most oil went out to Rome in the second and second centuries.” They detail From Ribeira Sacra tourism. In the community it is not strange either find References of traditional oil mills in which the fruit was used.
“In Galicia there were olive plantations, in some cases, of large dimensions, that if we follow some sources they would have been possible thanks to the introduction of this crop in our land by the Romans,” historian Felipe Aira explained in January An article of The voice of Galicia that he remembers how the Jews and Judeoconvers used the ‘liquid gold’ in their kitchens and at least part of the olive trees were preserved in the properties of the church, even after their decline in Galicia, for their value for the elaboration of the liturgical oils.
And the great unknown arises. All The chronicles that tell the link between the Olivos and Galicia end up reaching the same question: what explains that their cultivation ends up losing weight? Why Galicia It ceased to be an olive grove? Or even simpler … Why didn’t they remain expanding until they occupy a relevant weight in the Galician fields? As Lourenzo remembered in 2018, shadows are still and a long way to explore “about the presence of Olivos in Galicia.
His story is splashed with legends and inaccuracies, he said recently A chronicle Fiftymil, but is usually pointed to a complex sum of political, economic, demographic reasons and the reality of agricultural farms.
Click on the image to go to Tweet.
Of the Catholic Monarchs to Count Duke of Olivares. When the history of olive tree is explained in Galicia there are two names that are usually repeated: the first, the Catholic Monarchs; The second, Count Duke of Olivares. An extended theory ensures that the former, Fernando II of Aragon and Isabel I of Castilla, adopted a series of decisions about taxes and reorganization that punished the Galician plantations and favored that olive trees be started in the region.
But … why? There are those who say that the purpose was to favor the repopulation and crops of the newly reconquered lands of the Peninsular South. Others argue that in their decision, more political factors would have weighed and that when the Galician olive trees sought to penalize the territory and their aristocracy. The “Doma and castration from Galicia, “said the intellectual of the twentieth century, Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao about the policies of the Catholic Monarchs. The context is key and was marked by the defeat of Juana la Beltraneja, and therefore of the nobility that supported her in her cause, and the Irmandiños rebellion that developed in Galicia.
The shadow of olive groves. The theory is even more extended that if there is a proper name that explains the decline of olive tree in Galicia is that of the valid of King Felipe IV, the powerful Count Duke of Olivares. His would have been the decision to apply a tax of four reais per tree that ended up weighing on Galician crops for the benefit of those he possessed in Seville.
The result: except in the most remote and leafy regions, where the olive trees could easily escape the control of the authorities, the owners of the land had to decide whether they were compensated to deal with their high costs or take the ax and cut or cut off the olive trees. There are those Question However, the Count-Duke promotes a specific campaign to record the crops of Galicia and that the most complex reality includes factors that affected profitability.
One (complex) combination of factors. That the olive tree lost strength in Galicia and would not expand more through its fields, despite the existence of dozens of native varieties Well adapted to the type of land and climate of the region, it may be due, however, to a sum of more complex factors than the tax burden that complicated the plantations with the Catholic Monarchs and the valid of Felipe IV.
“We can blame the Catholic Monarchs, the castration of Galicia or the Atlantic climate but it is a more complex reality that motivated that it has not expanded,” Fernández explains in statements collected by Campo Galego. In his opinion, that “the crop did not expand when it did in other areas of Spain shows that in Galicia there were neither weather, nor social, nor mercantile conditions for such expansion to occur,” abounds.
At stake, factors such as the weight of minifundism in Galicia would enter, that the region specialized in Atlantic agriculture, with little presence of shrub crops, or the appearance more profitable options, such as potato and corn.
Image | Jose Luis Cernadas Iglesias (Flickr)
*An earlier version of this article was published in August 2024
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings