“I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.”Rosalia de Castro
The Millennium Tower is a monument built in the shape of an obelisk and located on the seafront of A Coruña. This tower was inaugurated on January 1, 2000, as the objective of this work was and is to commemorate the beginning of the 21st century.
This
Obelisk , which was born under the mantle of
the Tower of Hercules and the
Obelisk of the Cantones , reference works of A Coruña, is the work of the architect
Antonio Desmonts , and the drawings that decorate it are made by the author
Gerardo Porto .
The construction of the
Millennium Tower was not easy, since the work
measures approximately 50 meters and is made up of more than
170 rock crystals that arrived in the city of A Coruña from Holland.
Furthermore, thanks to its drawings, this monument depicts different
historical scenes from the city of A Coruña, including, for example, images of
Christopher Columbus’s caravels , the
Battle of Elviña , and, of course, the portrait of the city’s heroine:
María Pita .
This obelisk is also unique in that it houses more than
140 spotlights , allowing visitors to discover the unique features of all the drawings depicted there at night.
There is a funicular running up the mountainside but it was not operative and so we turned right and walked up along a shady pathway.
There were welcome drinking water fountains en route.
This park was formerly a defensive point converted for the enjoyment of citizens and tourists since 1999. It has an extension of more than 90,000 square meters where you can do all kinds of hobbies. You can fly a kite, lie on the grass or watch the sunset. In addition, it has a great tourist attraction which are the two Vickers pieces of more than 17 meters of altitude that were acquired in 1929 and installed in 1933, made in the UK.
But one of the main attractions of Monte de San Pedro are its evocative views. On one side you will see the Atlantic Ocean and the coastline to Arteixo and the Sisargas Islands that belong to Malpica de Bergantiños. And on the other side in the first term, the city and the Costa Artabra with the Ría de A Coruña, where we will find Mera, Santa Cruz and the coast of Oleiros and in the second term the Ría de Betanzos, the Ría de Ares, the Ría de Ferrol and the coast up to its outer harbour.
Once at the top you will also find the only 360-degree covered viewpoint in Spain, the Cúpula Atlántica.
Rosalia De Castro was a highly acclaimed and influential Galician writer and poet. Born on February 24, 1837, in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, she played a pivotal role in the revival of Galician literature and language during the 19th century.
Her works were praised for their lyricism, emotional depth, and ability to capture the essence of Galician culture. Through her writing, De Castro sought to raise awareness about the social inequalities and injustices faced by the Galician people, as well as celebrate their unique language, customs, and folklore.
A remarkable woman with a strong social conscience, de Castro’s antecedents were probably influential in predisposing her to identify with her poor and exploited countrymen. She was the illegitimate daughter of a priest. Her mother came from a well-to-do family, but de Castro spent the first 14 years of her life in the country. When she was 14, de Castro was ‘reclaimed’ by her mother. She missed her country life intensely and no doubt her poems grew out of her feeling of longing and homesickness for the countryside, and the only home she had ever known until she was displaced. The sense of something longed for and unfulfilled in these poems is so honest and sincere and uncontrived, that to read them is to almost directly experience them oneself.
I suspect it was de Castro’s fervour and intensity which led to the her being able to accomplish as much as she did in a relatively short life. She died of Cancer at the age of 48. It seems clear that de Castro had a premonition she would not live long, and this sense of life’s brevity and fragility lends the keenest possible edge to her writing. We are blessed indeed to be her literary beneficiaries and to be able to relish her remarkable work, and through them to hear her lovely voice.
The first time I was made aware of Rosalia and her legacy was on a solo pilgrimage from Porto, 15 years ago when my hotel in Padron was next door to a museum dedicated to her life. Every city and town in Galicia will have at least a street with her name.
Good-bye Rivers, Good-bye Fountains.
Good-bye rivers, good-bye fountains;
Good-bye, little rills;
Good-bye, sight of my eyes:
Don’t know when we’ll see each other again.
Sod of mine, sod of mine,
Sod where I was raised,
Small orchard I love so,
Dear fig trees that I planted,
Meadows, streams, groves,
Stands of pine waved by the wind,
Little chirping birds,
Darling cottage of my joy,
Mill in the chestnut wood,
Clear nights of brilliant moonlight,
Cherished ringing bells
Of the tiny parish church,
Blackberries in the brambles
That I used to give my love,
Narrow footpaths through the cornfields,
Good-bye, for ever good-bye!
Good-bye, heaven! Good-bye, happiness!
I leave the house of my birth,
I leave the hamlet that I know
For a world I haven’t seen!
I leave friends for strangers,
I leave the lowland for the sea,
I leave, in short, what I well love…
Would I didn’t have to go!
But I’m poor and—base sin!—
My sod is not my own
For even the shoulder of the road
Is loaned out to the wayfarer
Who was born star-crossed.
I must therefore leave you,
Small orchard I loved so,
Beloved fireplace of home,
Dear trees that I planted,
Favourite spring of the livestock.
Good-bye, good-bye, I’m leaving,
Hallowed blades of grass in the churchyard
Where my father lies buried,
Saintly blades of grass I kissed so much,
Dear land that brought us up.
Good-bye Virgin of the Assumption
White as a seraph,
I carry you in my heart:
Plead with God on my behalf,
Virgin of the Assumption mine,
Far, very far away hear
The church bells of Pomar;
For hapless me—alas—
They shall never ring again.
Hear them still farther away
Every peal deals out pain,
I part alone without a friend…
Good-bye land of mine, good-bye!
Farewell to you too, little darling…!
Farewell forever perhaps…!
I send you this farewell crying
From the precious coastline.
Don’t forget me, little darling,
If I should die of loneliness…
So many leagues offshore…
My dear house! My home!
A poem by Rosalia de Castro
ensuitepilgrim's Blog 
Thanks John. Beautiful sights. Derm