There is no doubt that the history of Mondoñedo is at the same level as such a beautiful and magical place. You see: It all begins with a group of Christians who, at the beginning of the Middle Ages, arrived from Brittany to the Galician coast. They built a church near the sea called San Martín de Mondoñedo which would become a cathedral. Still, there was a problem: the Vikings would occasionally drop by the area and destroy everything, as they usually did.
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There is no doubt that the history of Mondoñedo is at the same level as such a beautiful and magical place. You see: It all begins with a group of Christians who, at the beginning of the Middle Ages, arrived from Brittany to the Galician coast. They built a church near the sea called San Martín de Mondoñedo which would become a cathedral. Still, there was a problem: the Vikings would occasionally drop by the area and destroy everything, as they usually did.
The religious people, having seen this, decided to retreat inside and build another cathedral. A town grew around it which, taking the name of the old temple, was called Mondoñedo. With time, it became the capital of one of the Galician provinces and was filled with emblazoned houses and religious buildings that today form an extraordinary historical ensemble. Its heart is in the Plaza de España, in front of the cathedral they call “the kneeling” due to its low height. A few meters away, the statue of the brilliant Álvaro Cunqueiro watches us while he surely remembers fantastic legends.
Because Mondoñedo, as we were saying, does not lack of history or even stories. In that very square, the head of Marshal Pedro Pardo de Cela rolled over, a nobleman who made the fatal error of making enemies with the Catholic Monarchs. It is said that the marshal's wife obtained, at the last minute, the forgiveness of the monarchs, and galloped frantically to get there in time to avoid the decapitation. She would have made it only if on a beautiful old bridge, now called the Pastime Bridge, she had not been held up just long enough for the executioner's axe to come down.
In Mondoñedo there also abound convents, churches and illustrious stones. You would do well to look at everything in peace and visit the magnificent cathedral museum, which among other things holds a curious collection of clothing worn by the old bishops on important occasions. But in addition to visiting the historic centre of the town, you should also visit the amazing Cave of Rei Cintolo, which of course has another legend to tell.
Cintolo, lord of these places, had a beautiful daughter, Princess Xila, whom a lot of suitors wanted to marry. In the end, she fell in love with a young Count, but one of the rejects, who knew about magic crafts, did not take it very well. Crazed by jealousy, he cast a spell that buried the kingdom of Cintolo in the depths of the earth, petrifying Xila, inhabitants, animals and things forever. So if you manage to undo the spell, you will certainly have the eternal gratitude of that monarch and his daughter.
