Galicia

In Galicia, a tiny town made Pedro Almodóvar fall in love with filming. Today it is a magnet for TikTok

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Colorful houses next to the water, boats rocking at the foot of the facades and a tiny square overlooking the port. It is a beautiful town and the postcard seems stolen from some corner of Italy. However, it is in that Galicia that looks like a movie set, has barely 300 inhabitants and is called Redes. Of course, it is almost impossible to park. In fact, there is a common joke around the “multidrome“, because of the habit of many people of going down streets until they park almost on the beach. Maybe that’s why this Galician Venice has appeared three times on the screen but almost never on the map. A “Galician Venice”. No channels, of course.. First, the key data: Redes is a village in the parish of Camouco, in the municipality of Ares, region of Ferrolterra, province of A Coruña. It overlooks the Ares estuary, and from there comes the nickname with which it circulates on the internet: the Galician Venice. There are no gondolas or canals; There is an Atlantic estuary and fishing boats that give the town a beautiful scenery. And, in the background, the bay full of little white boats. Its name, by the way, comes from the winches, those wooden structures where fishermen hung their nets to dry after fishing, to prevent them from rotting and deteriorating. There are still a lot of them preserved around the port. Going in the low season is well worth the trip because then you can walk between colorful facades of a unique photogenicity. They are Indian houses, built by Galician emigrants who returned from America at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century with money and a desire to show off their façade. Ready to roll. Three different productions filmed here. One in the square, another in the port and another in the houses. Pedro Almodóvar filmed a good part of ‘Juliet‘ (2016), with Adriana Ugarte and Emma Suárez: the protagonist follows a fisherman, Xoán, to his hometown, and that town is Redes. The film won the Platinum Award for best direction. Galician Television also recorded scenes from ‘Padre Casares’ here, one of the most legendary and long-running TVG (Galician Regional Television) series, and director Carlos Solana filmed ‘Leo & Lou’ in its streets, with Manuel Manquiña and María Pujalte. Neighbors say that the relationship with the film crews was quite familiar. It seems that seeing a production company install spotlights and generators in the square no longer surprises anyone here. In the past Carmen Festivals Quite a few cameras were also seen. A magnet for TikTok. Yes, I admit to being that traveler who hates travelers, who is in other cities complaining about long lines and touristification. But it is that on TikTok and Instagram, Networks has become a fixed stop, with too many comments asking for the exact location. Among the answers there is no lack of the warning: the urban area is practically pedestrian, you cannot park inside, leave the car in the Redes Tennis Club parking lot and walk in, it takes less than five minutes. But there are people who would like to drive their car to the terrace of the Pousada do Mariñeiro. Light and saturation to the maximum, people erased with AI and, alas, to sell the idea. There are ways and means of traveling; some more respectful, adapted; others, too invasive and performative. Furthermore, the resource of comparing it with Venice is somewhat insulting: why not learn from its own idiosyncrasies? Port Saplaya, an urbanization in Alboraya (Valencia) built in the 70s imitating the Italian and French coast, is already being compared to Venice. It is worth knowing the history of Paco de Bello’s house, for example. The sea, true protagonist. Redes exists thanks to its fishermen—and its Cuban emigrants, why not say it—and that translates into the festivities. In summer the Cabria Festival is celebrated, in homage to those drying structures that give the town its name. Within walking distance is Raso beachfacing the estuary, with calm waves and suitable for families, with a campsite and restaurant on the edge of the sand. Nearby, in Punta Camouco, there are remains of an old fort on the islet of Mourón. To get there, the reference is the AP-9 highway: coming from Ferrol or A Coruña you have to take the Pontedeume exit and continue for about ten minutes on the local road; The detours are also signposted if you travel on the N-651 passing through Fene. By car, Redes is about 15 minutes from Ferrol5 from Pontedeume and half an hour from A Coruña by highway. There is no train station or direct bus to the town itself because the town is visited by car, or by combining public transport to Ares and a final walk. And although you can explore the entire area in a couple of hours, Pedregal Square invites you to stay much longer. It has an amazing sunset. Images | Flickr (José Luis García Mendoza, TikTok’s ‘We pack the suitcases‘ In Xataka | TikTok is only the tip of the iceberg of the great Internet drama in 2026: most of the content is already AI

archaeologists have discovered an unexpected link between petroglyphs from Galicia and Scandinavia

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If you travel to Galicia or the north of Portugal and observe carefully some of its petroglyphs From the Bronze Age you will find representations of ships. Back in the day, thousands of years ago, someone carved them into the rock to show the silhouette of ships, sometimes with decorations, crew members, oars and even something resembling sails. The really surprising thing about these pieces is that, deep down, they have little of ‘surprising’ about them. In the southern region of Scandinavia (Denmark and Sweden) archaeologists have documented thousands of engravings similar, which leaves one question: How the hell do you explain this coincidence? Now at last we have answers. Connecting dots. Recently a group of researchers led by Marta Díaz-Guardaminofrom the University of Durham, embarked on a peculiar project: analyzing the rock art samples located in a dozen deposits distributed throughout the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, more specifically in Galicia and the north of Portugal. They then compared them with other engravings located in Denmark and Sweden. It was not a capricious or random job. All the pieces shared a common link: they showed representations of ships. What did they find out? That beyond representing boats, the two samples (both the Scandinavian and the Iberian) have certain details in common, “design characteristics” that are repeated despite the hundreds of kilometers that separate Sweden from the Galician coast. Which is it? The archaeologists mainly identified decorations located at the ends of the boats with birds or ‘S’-shaped layouts, as well as representations of rigging, oars and sails. “The study identifies important typological and iconographic parallels between images from the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula and the Nordic ones,” they detail in the article that have been published in Plos One with their conclusions and in which they highlight the existence of “numerous and surprising” coincidences between the samples. “While several of the carved images of ships identified at coastal and river sites on the Atlantic coast of the peninsula are very rudimentary and difficult to interpret, there is no doubt that there are parallels with ships that can be dated within Scandinavian chronologies. In addition to the decorations on the ends of the ships (such as birds and ‘S’ drawings), they include shapes similar to ‘mushrooms’, ‘cult axes’ or ‘sails’ located in the center of the ship or that decorate the ends or knobs of bronze knives”. Old-fashioned globalization. With his analysis, Díaz-Guardamino pursued two objectives: to understand whether the engravings were related to each other and, if so, what that tells us about the Bronze Age. Now researchers believe they have valuable proof that “ideas and technologies were shared across Europe” millennia ago through maritime connections and cultural ties. Not only that. They believe that the engravings reveal something to us much more important: that ships were not a simple means of transportation with which to cross seas. They also had a “symbolic importance linked to rituals and beliefs.” “The shared iconography supports hypotheses about long-distance connectivity and maritime trade networks in Atlantic Europe, particularly regarding the movement of metals such as copper and tin,” abound the authors of the article before remembering that almost all the deposits in Iberia share another peculiarity: they are close to navigable waterways, whether rivers or the sea. Specifically, they have studied carvings from Viana, Caminha, Monterrei and Oia. Experienced sailors. In the opinion of experts, the “high level of technical detail” they have documented provides a new perspective on navigation capacity in the Bronze Age. Especially since in the engravings you can see boats that include oars, crew, masts, rigging and curved hulls, a detail that supports the hypothesis that the use of ships with sail was widespread on the Atlantic coast. The presence of cosmological symbols also tells us about a “shared concern” for solar mythology and travel. Fine-tuning the chronological shot. The research is not interesting only for what it reveals about the parallels between both regions. It is also because it helps us better understand the Iberian petroglyphs. More than 20,000 representations of Bronze Age ships have been discovered in Scandinavia, but in the northwest of the peninsula experts have struggled to date them. Thanks to their comparison and examination with high-resolution laser scanning, three-dimensional photogrammetry, RTI and GIS, the researchers believe that the Galicia and northern Portugal samples can be dated to the Late Bronze Age, around 1300-800 BC, a framework consistent with known Scandinavian maritime technologies. “Sea travel covered great distances and helped share cultural ideas across thousands of miles.” For researchers, it does not matter whether the Iberian petroglyphs were recorded by local sailors who assimilated foreign naval technology or were created by navigators who came from abroad and were passing through what is now Galicia and northern Portugal. The key, in his view, is that coastal communities “were actively involved in extensive long-distance maritime networks.” Images | Plos One-Marta Díaz-Guardamino et al. In Xataka | “For 2,000 years they have been inaccessible. Finally we can read them”: archaeologists now know how to decipher the Herculaneum papyri

In Galicia there is a town that every summer recreates a Viking landing with ‘drakkars’. And it makes perfect sense

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If you want to experience a Viking landing in your flesh, a historical representation that includes longships like those used by Nordic people in the 9th century to sail the seas, warriors with axes and medieval fortresses, you don’t need to travel to Scandinavia. In Catoira, a Galician town of just over 3,000 inhabitants, they celebrate every summer a pilgrimage that for a few hours turns the Ría de Arousa into the scene of an epic battle. The most interesting thing is its background: it is not a whimsical festival, but rather a tribute to the role that the town played centuries ago in the defense of Galicia. Vikings in Galicia? When you think of Vikings, the first thing that comes to mind is Scandinavia and the Nordic navigators who centuries ago, between the 8th and 11th AD, dedicated themselves to sailing, trading and plundering across Europe. However, every summer Catoira, a small town in the province of Pontevedra, celebrates a pilgrimage focused precisely on the Vikings. It has been doing so for more than six decades and with such success that its celebration has achieved the seal of international tourist interest and, in just one week, attracts more than 100,000 people. Not bad if we take into account that in the town they live 3,300. An old connection. Catoira celebrating a Viking party makes all the sense in the world. The town may be more than 2,000 kilometers from Norway, but centuries ago it played a crucial role in repelling raids by the normative pirates (also Saracens) who came to Galician lands in search of loot and, above all, an easy access route to Santiago de Compostela. To understand it, you must first understand the strategic geographical role of Catoira, a town located at the inland end of the Arousa estuary, near the mouth of the Ulla. If the pirates wanted to reach Santiago, where the 9th century The tomb of Saint James the Greater was located, it offered them an ideal access door. “The key and seal of Galicia”. The local rulers soon understood the role that the Catoira area played and that is why they fortified it with the West Towersa medieval defensive system located at the head of the estuary. Today we preserve two of the seven original towers that between the 9th and 10th centuries They allowed the locals to stand up to Norman raids. “The Vikings who arrived in Galicia in the 9th and 10th centuries with the intention of plundering our lands encountered resistance from the troops of the Castellum Honestiwhich during that time prevented the Norman armies and Saracen pirates from ascending the river, to the point of this fortress being considered the ‘Key and seal of Galicia’”, remember the Catoira Town Hall. A party… and a tribute. A few decades ago, in 1960the members of the Ateneo do Ullán decided to remember the heroic past of the town with an act that basically commemorated the landings in the lands of Ullá. As the City Council explains, it began as “a meeting of friends with cultural concerns”, a celebration without major pretensions. Over time, however, the party gained strength. In 1965 a company took over the organization and during the next quarter of a century the pilgrimage continued to grow and increase its impact beyond Catoira, Pontevedra and even Galicia. It grew so much, in fact, that between the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s the City Council decided take charge of the organization. What had started as an improvised act gained the status of international holiday. There are no Vikings without longships. Proof of how much the pilgrimage expanded (and of its vocation to continue doing so) is that the event incorporated several longshipsthe characteristic warships used by the Norse and Germanic tribes. In 1993, the first one was built, named ‘Torres de Oeste’, and over time two others were added: ‘Frederikssund’ and ‘Ardglass-Catoira’. These are not more or less approximate copies. To make the first, a group of expert Catoirense craftsmen traveled to Denmark, where they studied Viking boat-building methods and were inspired by the Skuldelev 5a longship found in Denmark. The ‘Frederikssund’ is also an adaptation of an authentic 11th century ship, the Gokstadlocated in Norway. Ironies of history, today Catoira’s heroic past is celebrated with a pilgrimage in which the protagonists are the Vikings and in which (of course) there is no shortage of medieval markets, shows, seafood and red wine from Ulla. Images | Council of Catoira, Spain tourism and Xunta de Galicia In Xataka | When the Romans arrived in Galicia, they encountered the enemy they feared most: a river that stole their memory.

Spain debuts in the World Cup with a match against Cape Verde. There is a remote town in Galicia where life is like a derby

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At this point in the film it is very difficult to predict what will happen in the remainder of the term, if the peace agreement between Washington and Tehran will come to fruition or how the war in Ukraine will be settled. What is easy to predict is that this afternoon, starting at 6:00 p.m., a large part of Spain will be glued to the TV to follow La Roja’s World Cup debut against Cape Verde. There is, however, a small town in Galicia where this match will be experienced with special intensity: Burela. There, in fact, it is proposed almost like a derby. In a place in Lugo… It may not be the most famous nor the most populous municipality in Galicia, but Burela is exceptional in many ways. To begin with, it is a relatively young town. Although its history may trace back centuriesuntil the mid-1990s was part of the Cervo town hall. But above all, if something defines Burela, it is its multiculturalism. According to the Galician Institute of Statistics (IGE), almost 20% of its population was born abroad, in countries in America, Asia, the rest of Europe or Africa, which has a large representation with various nationalities. A “Galician-style” Cape Verde. Among this range of homelands there is one that stands out for its weight, history and mark on Burelense society: Cape Verde. The Country precise That in the census of foreigners there are almost 500, but if we take into account their descendants the figure is closer to a thousand people. Not bad for a population that does not reach 10,000 residents. For reference, in 2022 the INE had registered In Spain as a whole, 2,600 people of Cape Verdean nationality, of which almost 600 resided in Galicia. In net terms, it is the second largest community, only surpassed for Madrid. Some media they need that Burela is the municipality in Spain with the highest concentration of population with roots in Cape Verde, at least if we take into account its weight in the local census. This fact is explained by a very simple reason: the flow of Cape Verdean immigrants began there several decades ago. In fact, there are families living in Burela who are already the fourth generation. “They were among the first”. The link between Burela and the African archipelago is best understood by reviewing the story by Manuel Mendes Pereira, athlete and one of the many residents of Burela with family roots in Cape Verde. “My father, originally from Porto Mosquito, on the island of Santiago, came in 1978 to work in the construction of Alumina. He came through a brother of his who was already here. He liked the sea and ended up involved in fishing,” relates to Sport. “My mother arrived later, in 1989. They were one of the first. He always told me that Burela was practically nothing compared to what it is today.” Is it a unique case? No. Villablino, in the Laciana region of León, also maintains a strong bond with emigration of Cape Verdean origin. In the case of the Mariña of Lugo, the connection is explained by the industry and especially the fishing sector. In Villablino, the link, which can be traced back decades and decades agopart of the mining activity. This relationship extends to Bierzo, where in the 90s the Embassy had registered about 3,000 citizens from Cape Verde. Community members are called “capebertians”. And FIFA arrived. The World Cup has served to give new prominence to those ties woven in Burela or Bierzo, in which today they will experience with special intensity the Atlanta match in which will be measured you love selections The event will be special for both of them, who are making their debut in the World Cup and aspire for this tournament to occupy a prominent place in their chronicles. The Red comes as a favorite and dreams of adding a second star to its shield, the African team aspires to leave a mark in his first World Cup. “We are going a bit with a divided heart, but this time perhaps I am going more with Cape Verde,” admits Manuel Mendes. He won’t be the only one. In the Bierzo region there will be fans in a similar situation. Whatever happens, party. Although not even Burela is free of the signs of racism, what the Galician municipality aspires to today is to enjoy a day of party and celebration. Whatever happens, whether there are goals or not, whether one team or the other wins, one thing is certain: in the town of Mariña in Lugo there will be parties, music and dancing. The match will coincide with Cape to Cape Festivalpromoted by the Lugo Provincial Council and the City Council, among other organizers, and which will feature music by DJs and various groups, including Batuko Tabankaa set created ago more than two decades and formed by women of Cape Verdean origin. Images | Municipality of Burela 1, 2 and FIFA In Xataka | For the first time, Curaçao will play in a soccer World Cup. And only one of their players was born in Curaçao

Ryanair will cut 1.2 million seats in Spain but there is one region that will suffer more than the rest: Galicia

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Ryanair will reduce seats, cancel routes and raise ticket prices. That is the strategy that the company envisions for Spain during next summer. And Eddie Wilson has confirmed a strategy that has been talked about since last October when the CEO of Ryanair already threatened to take more flights from Spain if the situation did not change with Aena’s rates. And one autonomous community is feeling it more than the rest. 1.2 million seats. That will be the cut that Ryanair has prepared for our country next summer. It is something that was already reported in October and was confirmed last Monday. Counterscheduling the distribution of Aena dividends among its partners, Eddie Wilson has taken the opportunity to point out that its activity will be reduced in Spain in just a few months. They do so because the Government takes advantage of “(Aena’s) monopoly position in Spain’s main airports, obtaining excessive margins of 60% at the expense of local economies, which depend on affordable air travel for tourism and employment.” Without a change in airport taxesRyanair confirms that it is withdrawing flights in our country and that it will replace seats in larger airports. The reason is the repeated one in the last months of this Government-Ryanair battle: They consider that Aena’s rates at regional airports are too high. Once again, regional airports. According to the company, Aena’s airport taxes in regional spaces are uncompetitive and a burden on tourism and the economy of these cities. This has caused, according to the company, its departure from the airports of Asturias, Valladolid, Jerez, Tenerife North and Vigo and its activity to be reduced by 79% in Santiago compared to the summer 2024 figures. Not only that, in addition to this cut in seats, Wilson has not hesitated to warn that if the price of jet fuel becomes scarce, the first victims will be the regional airports, prioritizing the large seats. What about Galicia? Although Ryanair claims that its departure is fatally damaging the less frequented Spanish airports, the truth is that not all of them are suffering the same fate. A good example is Zaragoza. Compared to 2024, it will have 45% fewer seats, three routes canceled and two others cut. Despite this, Aena data They say that in 2025 the number of passengers grew by 1.9% (especially on domestic routes) and that in 2026 it is growing by 2.6%. Photography is very different in Galicia. So far this year, A Coruña airport is the only one that has grown. Without Ryanair, Vigo is falling 3.4% this year but the most worrying thing is in Santiago. At this airport, Ryanair has cut its activity by almost 80% compared to the summer of two years ago. In 2025 it has already fallen by 14.3% and this year it is falling by 29.6%. The lower activity at this airport has caused flights in the region to fall by 6.9% last year and so far this year this has worsened to 15.5%. There is only one worse fact. From all regions, Galicia is the one with the worst figures. And so far this year, only Castilla y León has lost more travelers, with a drop of 18.6%. However, its volume of travelers is much lower than that of Galicia. In the first three months of 2025, 40,051 people moved by plane in the region, while this year 32,613 passengers did so. That’s a drop of less than 8,000 seats filled. In Galicia, however, so far this year 987,812 passengers have taken a plane, while in 2025 a total of 1,168,745 people had taken a plane. That is, in the first quarter of the year, 180,933 passengers have been lost in the first quarter of 2026. And more than 200,000 passengers compared to 2024 when more than 1,194,032 people moved by plane in the first three months of the year. Not only the rates. When Ryanair announces that it is leaving an airport, it usually points to airport taxes, but the reality is more complex. The truth is that the company has maintained some commercial routes with low demand because it had advertising contracts that supported its routes. Contracts that he has not hesitated to break, as in Vigowhen you have found more juicy economic incentives like those that have arrived from Morocco. It must be taken into account thatthe launch of the AVE to Galicia It has also been a hard blow for airline companies that have seen how part of their customers move to the train since it offers more affordable rates and travel times that, adding the waits at airports, are similar to those of the plane. In fact, companies like Iberia have also reduced their supply because demand did not compensate for the effort. Photo | Left Victorian and Simone Muzzi In Xataka | The new EU border system is leaving people without flights. Ryanair has a solution: close check-in early

The first letter bomb was made in a pharmacy in Vigo and exploded in the hands of the captain general of Galicia in 1829.

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TO Nazario Eguía and Sáenz de Buruaga (1777-1865) we remember him for his political and military career, which even earned him the title of Count of Casa Eguía, but if this Biscayan with strong absolutist convictions was a pioneer in something (despite himself), it was in something else: letter bombs. In October 1829, Eguía found an envelope in his office in Santiago de Compostela that burst as he took off the flap, causing him more a dozen woundssome very serious. Let it be known that it was the first letter-bomb in history and its origin (or at least that is suspected) you have to look for it in a pharmacy in Vigo. “Excessively hard”. Nazario Eguía He was going to become a clergyman, but the war got in his way. At the age of 16 he abandoned ecclesiastical studies, took up arms against the French troops and began a brilliant military career that led him to serve under the orders of Wellingtonpromote to Field Marshal before the age of 37 and occupy the position of captain general of Galicia. Over time they would even name him a count and he would distinguish himself as an outstanding Carlist. In addition to his successes on the battlefield, Eguía was known for his toughness, which among other things earned him the hatred of the liberals while he served as captain general of Galicia. As explained the biography dedicated to him by the Society of Basque Studies, displayed an “excessively harsh” character. And that ended up generating quite a few enemies. Among them some with chemical knowledge and amazing expertise when it comes to assembling almost undetectable bombs. “Del Rey, for General Eguía”. The event occurred on the morning of October 29, 1829 in the Santa Cruz palace in Santiago de Compostela, where Eguía had his office. The soldier was reviewing the correspondence with his assistant when a package caught his attention. The sheet in question came from León and came wrapped in three different envelopes. The assistant was in charge of opening the first two, but when he reached the third he found a note: “Very reserved. From the King to General Eguía”. The soldier, a staunch absolutist, could not resist the temptation: he took the letter from his assistant, went to his table, ran his index finger along one of the folds and tore the envelope. Mistake. “At the same moment a loud explosion was heard. The table sprang to pieces and the general and the chair rolled on the floor,” details the writer Manuel Curros Enríquez (1852-1908) when remembering what happened that morning. “When he got up he had one of his hands destroyed.” “A terrifying detonation”. Curros’ story is not the only story that allows us to get an idea of ​​how serious the explosion was. Another testimonyeven more valuable, was contributed by Eguía’s secretary: “A frightful detonation and the surprise left the bystanders as if petrified, whose astonishment grew when they saw their general pouring blood from his face (…) and observed the frock coat he was wearing, defeated by the mouth-sleeves and part that covered the belly.” The journalist and historian Eduardo Rolland remember that the Galician press even explained how the explosion left a blood stain on the roof of the palace that could still be seen several months after the attack. Result: 13 wounds. Not only do we have a precise idea of ​​what the explosion was like. We also know what the bomb looked like and the effect it had on its victim. Regarding the first, the letter contained gunpowder mixed with arsenic and crushed glass, a combination designed to cause maximum damage. As for the captain general, he survived by a pure miracle. The chronicles say that he suffered 13 woundssome very seriousdistributed over the face, belly and thighs. The worst part was taken by their hands. The right one was so torn that doctors had to amputate it. On the left he lost two fingers. He was so badly off that the Government had to grant him a dispensation special so that he could sign documents with the help of a stamp. Who was the author? It seems that Eguía did not have many doubts. The story de Curros (not without epic) claims that after the explosion the captain proclaimed that he still had one hand left “to hang the culprit” and then cited his main suspect: “No one but Chao is capable of inventing such a perfect work!” This Chao was neither more nor less than José María Chao, chemist, pharmacist and above all a militant liberal. We know that he was a native of Leiro (province of Ourense), who participated in skirmishes during the Liberal Triennium and that around 1826 he set up a pharmacy in what is now the historic center of Vigo, a pharmacy that ended up becoming a reference for liberals forced to adapt to the Omino DecadeOh the repression under the reign of Ferdinand VII. The big doubt. Was Chao really the creator of the first known letter bomb? It is certainly not strange that Eguía suspected him. In addition to his chemical knowledge, in October 1829 Chao he had just gotten out of prison and it is said that his pharmacy was a hotbed of conspirators. It is true that the package bomb had been sent from Leónbut that could have been a ploy to deceive the authorities. However, evidence is one thing and evidence is another. Not all sources agree on whether the attack was clarified and Chao’s responsibility was confirmed. The biography that the Royal Academy of History (RAH) dedicates to Eguía assures that, although the liberals were suspected, “the authors could not be discovered.” The Voice of Galicia assures However, the apothecary could not get rid of a punishment and Rolland goes further and he slips that in 1873 Chao was “unequivocally” identified as the author of the letter. The first letter-bomb in history? What surely neither Eguía, nor Chao, nor any … Read more

For decades, the “Galicia” octopus has been the greatest guarantee of quality. The United Kingdom wants to take it away

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The Galician octopus may be the most famous, but for some time now, talking about the most precious cephalopod in the country’s gastronomy requires looking beyond the Rías Baixas. In fact, it forces us to take a leap of hundreds of kilometers and look at the other side of the English Channel, on the southern coast of the United Kingdom. There the English fishermen have encountered a curious octopus invasion which at first they viewed with suspicion (they have been dedicated to capturing other species for generations), but each time it awakens greater interest in London. The question is how can it affect that to Galicia, a land that has turned octopus into a ‘religion’ (in addition to a big business) and that in recent years has encountered the opposite panorama: a fall in the capture of cephalopods. What has happened? That the octopus map is changing. And although we still don’t know for sure how deep (and stable) that transformation will be, it has been clear enough to generate expectation in Galicia, a land closely linked to the cephalopod from a cultural and economic point of view. To understand it, we have to go back to 2025, when fishermen who fish on the southern coasts of the United Kingdom encountered an unexpected picture: in the pots that have been installed for generations to hunt crabs and lobsters, they began to appear empty shells…a clue to the presence of octopuses. Click on the image to go to the tweet. Why is it so strange? Because the ports in the north of the peninsula are used to large unloadings of octopus, but things change when we talk about Newlyn or Brixham, in England. There the boats that go out to fish hope to collect sole, turbot, crabs or lobsters. A few months ago, however, the fishermen encountered an unexpected (and apparently inexplicable) invasion of Octopus vulgariscephalopods that usually live in the Mediterranean or other areas of the Atlantic, such as the Galician coast. It was not a one-off boom. Nor something anecdotal. The phenomenon was so surprising that it even caught the attention of Stephen Castle, a reporter for The New York Timeswho in September traveled to Brixham to talk to sailors and operators. In a chronicle about what he saw there, he talks about fishermen ecstatic to see how their turnover skyrocketed thanks to new catches, auctions of tons of merchandise and veterans of the sector recognizing that it was the first time they had captured the species in their waters in more than 40 years. This is good news, right? Depends. Castle chatted with fishermen who rub their hands when they see the tentacles wriggling in their nets, but also with others who frustratedly tell how octopuses boycott the pots with which they capture shellfish. They are not the only ones who are not enthusiastic about the new plague. “I recently visited the fishing industry in Plummouth and was informed that there was an unusual abundance of octopuses in the south west. The Ministry of Environment and Food understands that the proliferation is affecting shellfish pot fishing and causing concern in the fishing sector in the area,” warned in May last year the Labor MP Daniel Zeichner. And why not take advantage of it? That is the question that the British authorities seem to have asked themselves, who have decided that the cephalopod invasion may be something more: an opportunity. At the beginning of the year Vigo Lighthouse revealed who in London want to promote a formal, regulated and industrial fishery of the octopus vulgaris. In short: make a virtue of necessity and equip yourself with a strategy to gain a foothold in a market that moves billions of euros. Proof that the United Kingdom they are very serious with the octopus is that the Marine Biological Association (MBA) and the Marine Management Organization (MMO), two departments linked to the Government, “are considering how best to collaborate with the EU to learn from existing octopus fisheries.” a few days ago The Voice of Galicia even reported that the country is already looking at the markets of the rest of Europe and Morocco. It makes sense if we take into account that the change on the English coast, with an octopus boom that in turn reduces the population of other traditional species, already affected to the Christmas campaign. Do they have that many octopuses? Yes. In September, after speaking with the manager of a market, Castle talked about the sale of up to 48 tons of octopus in a single day. Official MMO data shows that last year a total of about 1,900 tons of octopus, especially in Brixham and Dartmouth. It is an exceptional fact. First, because it exponentially multiplies the discrete cephalopod capture data recorded so far. Second, because it surpasses the 1,200 t handled in the markets of Galicia. There is sources which indicate that total sales in the UK markets would be much higher. Data from the Xunta on the sale (blue) and price (yellow) of octopus in the markets of Galicia. Is it something new? Yes. And no. It is not the first time that English fishermen have found octopuses wrapped in their nets and pots. Vigo Lighthouse remember that in Devon and Cornwall sailors already encountered similar situations in the late 19th and mid-20th centuries, when the regional press came to speak of “a perfect plague” of “disgusting beasts” that “almost ruined” the sector. On this occasion there are signs that suggest that it will not be something temporary. Experts such as Seteve Simpson, from the University of Bristol, slide that climate change is “a likely factor” in explaining the increase in octopuses in southern England. “Our waters are warming, so our little island of Britain is becoming increasingly favorable for octopus populations,” he theorizes. There are clues that suggest he is not wrong. In Plymouth there are fishermen who recognize that they not only encounter adult specimens when fishing. They also see … Read more

Inheritances have become the key for young people to buy a home. In Galicia they are giving them up

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The data is shocking. In a country where inheritances and donations have become the ‘key’ that allows thousands of young people to acquire their own homes, something difficult to consider without that family support, in Galicia a curious phenomenon is being recorded: a record of inheritance renunciations. Just last year almost 4,000 people They said ‘no’ to the possibility of receiving the legacy that their parents, grandparents, uncles or any other relative had left them when they died. Nor is it a new phenomenon Nor is Galicia the only region in which resignations growbut his case is paradigmatic: those 4,000 cases mark a historical maximum. The question is… Why the hell are inheritances rejected? What has happened? That at a time when inheritances have become the “ticket” that allows many young people take the leap from tenants to owners of their own home, a curious record has just been recorded in Galicia: a historical maximum of heirs renouncing their family legacies. The data has advanced it Vigo Lighthouse. In 2025, almost 4,000 people in the region said ‘no’ to the assets left to them by their deceased relatives. The media cites statistics from the Notarial College of Galicia, which also shows that the current volume of resignations far exceeds that of a few years ago. Why do they do it? The big question. As it reflects a recent report of ARAG, Galicia is one of the autonomous communities that offer a more attractive tax framework for inheritances between descendants and spousesat least those that do not exceed one million euros. There are other taxes that come into play, such as municipal capital gains that can be applied to urban properties, but it does not seem that this is the reason that explains the trickle of inheritance renunciations. What is it then? The reality is that there is no single answer. One of the reasons that most influence resignations is (as ironic as it may sound) the inheritances themselves. Its nature. When we think about them, money accumulated in savings accounts, farms, houses and vehicles comes to mind. The reality is that in many cases legacies are ‘poisoned gifts’. What does that mean? That legacy properties don’t just add up. They also ‘subtract’, either because they arrive accompanied by unpaid mortgages, loans or guarantees or simply because the value of the inheritance does not compensate for the cost of assuming it. The latter may sound strange, but it can occur in inheritances from uncles to nephews or between brothers. Bonuses aside, if the value of the legacy is not high, it may not be worth paying capital gains, notary and registrar. Year pure renunciation Resignation in favor of another person (translative) 2011 18,933 800 2012 23,235 777 2013 28,783 689 2014 34,340 741 2015 37,623 756 2016 38,826 687 2017 43,001 776 2018 46,684 826 2019 47,421 818 2020 44,582 745 2021 55,576 1,124 2022 55,509 1,099 2023 56,179 1,117 2024 54,866 1,273 2025 (until October) 46,265 1,041 Are there more reasons? Yes. Like a good part of Spain, Galicia is a territory in full change: its population tends to concentrate and uninhabited areas increase. In practice, this means that part of the inheritances left in the community are simply rural or forest properties with difficult (or no) access, buildings in ruins and plots reduced to their minimum expression in a land characterized precisely by his smallholding. In short, properties of low value, off the market and that may even entail liabilities, such as keep them clean to avoid fires. It is also not unusual for inheritances to include plots whose ownership is fragmented among different family members, sometimes unrelated to each other. Lighthouse explains People also come to the offices of notaries who want to renounce legacies simply because they had no relationship with the deceased or want to avoid family problems that could lead to lawsuits. ccaa RESIGNATIONS IN 2024 RESIGNATIONS IN 2011 Andalusia 10,889 2,443 Aragon 1,229 505 Asturias 2,033 713 Balearics 1,526 728 Canary Islands 2,123 645 Cantabria 712 210 CASTILLA AND LEÓN 3,347 1,358 CASTILLA-LA MANCHA 2,123 592 Catalonia 9,672 4,815 VALENCIAN COMMUNITY 5,502 1,615 Estremadura 1,209 311 Galicia 3,859 1,051 COMMUNITY OF MADRID 5,687 2,050 REGION OF MURCIA 1,752 390 Navarre 744 207 the Basque Country 1959 1,103 Rioja 500 197 Is it just a matter of inheritances? No. Other factors are added to the above, such as the lack of liquidity of the heirs at the time in which they must receive their legacy or simply the increase in inheritances processed in life. In the end, resignations are increasing, but so are agreements between living relatives who anticipate the process to avoid conflicts or benefit from tax advantages. In the background there is also a purely demographic component: as societies like the Galician one age deaths increasewhich in turn leads to more inheritances and the possibility of increased resignations. Is it something new? No. Nor does it only happen in Galicia. A quick search in the newspaper archive shows that rejections of inheritances have been increasing for some time and they are not rare in other autonomous communities either. just a year ago The Country revealed that the proportion of rejected inheritances had risen considerably to reach historic highs in the historical series. Their percentages must be handled with some caution because they are based on statistics in which resignations are equated with renunciants when in reality a legacy can fall on several people who do not accept it. In any case the data of the General Council of Notaries are eloquent: if in 2011 the organization recorded 18,933 resignations (“pure and simple renunciation of inheritance or legitimate”), in 2016 there were already 38,826 and in 2024 (last annual data closed) 54,866. The 2025 results are still partial, but show about 46,300 rejections through October. Why is it so shocking? Partly because of the context. The General Council of Notaries itself published a report at the end of 2025 which shows that “donations … Read more

Spain awarded 20 million euros to Stellantis to create jobs in Galicia. Europe has prevented the money from being delivered

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20,660,434 euros. That was the aid that the Government of Spain granted in 2017 to PSA (now Stellantis after its merger with FCA) as “regional incentives for the correction of territorial economic imbalances.” Just two years later, the European Commission already doubted the appropriateness of this aid. Almost a decade after its delivery, Stellantis will have to return the money. 20.7 million euros. It was the money given by Mariano Rajoy’s Government in 2017 to the automobile conglomerate PSA. The company, then directed by Carlos Tavares, had been looking for money framed within the “Industrial Plan 2014-2020” in which funds from the European Union were available. The Spanish subsidiary of PSA, known as PCAE, requested aid of 392 million euros in 2014 to carry out the necessary actions to modernize the plant and launch a new model. The aid program was expanded, with another 100 million in subsequent years because PSA was going to produce a new vehicle platform and a new SUV car in Vigo. In 2017, shortly before Mariano Rajoy left Moncloa, the Government of Spain provided the aforementioned aid of 20.7 million euros since it corresponded to the maximum percentage allowed with respect to the investment that was planned to be used. many doubts. In 2019the European Commission was already beginning to doubt the legality or compatibility of this aid. In a document submitted thenquestioned whether the subsidies provided were meeting the criteria to create employment in the area. In said letter, PSA was already invited and the Government of Spain has explained the reason for this aid. In that document, the European Commission questioned whether the positive effects of the aid outweighed the negative ones and, therefore, that the decision to financially support the company with those more than 20 million euros was not economically doping its commitment to our country instead of taking production to the Trnava plant (Slovakia) with which Vigo competed. According to the European Commission, it believed that both plants were competing on equal terms and that the socioeconomic context of the Slovaks was no worse than that of Vigo. Furthermore, they pointed out that the defense that this aid helped preserve employment in Galicia in the face of a possible relocation to Morocco (a position defended by Spain) was not sufficient because PSA had already previously relocated other vehicles that were previously manufactured in Spain. Seven years of research. Already in 2020, Europe continued to defend that the Commission had its doubts “regarding the contribution of investment projects to the development of the region in question”, as they stated in elDiario.es. Then it was thought that the company’s true intention was to improve the factory facilities with the sole objective of improving the company’s competitiveness but that it had nothing to do with an improvement in innovation and local investments. There were even doubts about the compatibility of being able to deliver these aid to a company like PCAE (the Spanish subsidiary of PSA). One of the most compelling reasons presented by the European Commission is, as they point out in The Worldthe choice of the Vigo company to the detriment of the Slovaks. And it is considered that opting for a more economically developed region to receive aid contravenes the principles of cohesion of the European Union, which prevents the delivery of this type of subsidies. Case closed. Now, the Government of Spain has notified the European Commission that it is withdrawing the subsidy of 20.7 million euros. He has done it because he cannot prove its legality. As the money has not yet been delivered, the European Commission has closed the investigation, they explain in the Galician media. praza.gal. At this time, Spain has not been able to demonstrate that the number of jobs increased after the aid was granted nor that it represented an economic boost in the region. In fact, it was possible that the number of jobs could even be reduced, as they point out in Motorpassion. During this time, the money has not been delivered because it remained frozen with the European investigation. Now we know that Stellantis will not charge it. Photo | Stellantis In Xataka | The Stellantis factory in Figueruelas has been looking for a reconversion plan for years. You already have it: make Chinese electric cars

In the cemeteries of Galicia, the Christs have begun to disappear from the tombstones. There is a suspect: “red gold”

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The surprise was capital. And sad. Mostly sad. A few days ago, when she went to the pantheon where her relatives are buried, a neighbor from Celanova (Galicia) found that the figure of crucified Christ that decorated the tomb was missing. The curious thing is that not only was his own missing. Taking a look at the rest of the cemetery he found that the same thing was happening in five other tombs. In one, in fact, the Christ had been torn off and only preserved part of one arm, as if someone had burst it by using force with a lever. The case would not have made it out of the local press if it were not for the fact that it was not the only cemetery in Ourense in which the neighbors found that image. What has happened? That in the rural cemeteries of Galicia, more specifically in Ourense, dozens and dozens of Christs are disappearing. It takes a look at the regional press to see that it is more than a simple anecdote: March 16 Vigo Lighthouse informed of the disappearance of figures in two cemeteries in Celanova, days after The Voice of Galicia spoke already of 40 Christs torn from graves and Europa Press raised the total count to more than 50 crucifixes. One of the last media outlets to take stock has been Galicia Press, which on Wednesday the 18th reported the lack of more than 70 Christs in at least five different cemeteries. But… And why is that? Cemeteries are spaces of mourning and meditation, so it is not common (at least not in Spain of the 21st century) encounter cases of missing Christs like the one that shakes rural Ourense. There are a few theories to explain it. It could be acts of vandalism. Or some practice related to esoteric rituals. The Galician authorities are not inclined towards one or the other. For them the mystery is much simpler: the Civil Guard is investigating it like robberies, beatings carried out by criminals who are not interested in crucifixes and their artistic or spiritual value, but in something much more prosaic. What interests them is brass, stainless steel and above all copper with which these pieces were manufactured, a metal that recently reached a record price. ‘Red gold’ thieves? Exact. Recently the Civil Guard recognized to Europa Press who works “without ruling out” any possibility, but the starting hypothesis is quite simple: criminals sneak into cemeteries at night, especially in winter, steal figures that are often made of metal and then melt them down and sell them. Its objective focuses above all on copper, ‘red gold’whose price has been shot after the revaluation of recent years. The idea is that the material reaches the scrap market without raising suspicions and is reused in the industry. The Region even talks about the “band of the christs” and slips that they could be traveling professional criminals. Where have they stolen? The thefts seem to focus on a specific area, in the province of Ourense. Galicia Press point basically to rural cemeteries in the Celanova region and nearby towns, which includes cemeteries such as Santa María de Pontefechas, San Xoán de Viveiro, San Breixo de Celanova or Santo Eusebio de A Peroxa. There are those who expand the affected area in the province and speaks of assaults in cemeteries in the towns of Maside, Verea or Allariz. Thieves do not hesitate either take rings or resorting to force to extract the metal pieces, which has already led them to break crosses or some Christ, as in Pontefechas, where in one of the attacked tombs only part of an arm remained fixed to the stone head. Some parish priests of the archpriest have put on alert to their parishioners to be alert to theft. Why copper? For its value. It’s nothing new. Although its price has fallen slightly in recent days, the price of ‘red gold’ has escalated notably during the last year, reaching spikes historic at the beginning of 2026. The Region specifies that a kilo of this metal can be sold at between eight and ten euroswhich explains why it has been on the bands’ radar for some time now. The interest of criminals is not limited to cemeteries. Not long ago the Civil Guard dismantled a group that was dedicated to stealing copper cables in part of Asturias and the province of Lugo. The authorities estimate that a total of 24,000 kilos valued at 115,000 euros. In 2025 it has already fallen a similar band in Ourense and at the end of 2023 the arrest of other criminals dedicated to the same activity in the border area with Portugal. Does it only happen in Galicia? No. A quick Google search arrives to find news about copper theft in other communities in Spain. Since the bands are interested in the material, it is worth as much wind farm wiring and industrial coils as telephone infrastructure, rail transport either lighting. Proof of how juicy the business is is that at the end of 2025, the Interior reported the arrest of 18 people accused of more than thirty copper thefts worth 1.7 million euros. And what happens in cemeteries? Galicia is not the only place where cemeteries (and their metallic decoration) have whetted the appetite of criminal gangs. Last fall the National Police counted around 200 tombstones from the Torrero de Zaragoza cemetery that had suffered damage. Most for the same reason: tearing off bronze figures and other ornaments. More or less similar episodes have been experienced in the Community of Madrid, Castile and León or the Region of Murcia, where in 2023 the authorities arrested several people for allegedly carrying out more than 80 robberies in a municipal cemetery. The objective is the same: to loot copper, bronze and brass for resale. Images | M. Peinado (Flickr) and Home Office In Xataka | Twenty years ago, 45% of Galician families saved money thanks to the garden: … Read more

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