Mirador de Cotorredondo | Costa da Vela

The Cotorredondo tower, perched on one of the highest points of the O Morrazo peninsula, is a viewpoint over two estuaries that no one uses today. Several generations of Pontevedra residents have climbed step by step the itinerary that leads to the last platform from which you can see the bottom of the Vigo estuary and the entrance to the Pontevedra estuary. It is one of those views that the residents of the region like that their guests from outside and tourists in general can take with them as a memory in their retinas.

However, it is a tourist resource that can be talked about more in the past tense of the verb than in the present or future. It is not that it threatens ruin or that it has ceased to exist. The reason is much more prosaic. If a visitor goes to the tower, the maximum their eyes can reach is to see the trunks of the pine trees at the height of the stairs of a door that has the latch closed. You can't even sense the estuary in front of you. The forest blocks the view.

The tower has no one to open it, because no one is responsible for monitoring it for visitors and the community members of Santa Cristina, its owners, do not want to expose themselves to an accident resulting in a damage claim.Monte do Facho is located in Donón, in the parish of O Hío (Cangas), on the so-called Costa de la Vela or Soavela, a short distance from the westernmost point of the O Morrazo peninsula. Its magnificent geographical and strategic location meant that it was inhabited by several civilizations since ancient times.

The mere 160 m above sea level of Monte do Facho are no problem so that from the top you can see a whole world; From Cabo Silleiro in Baiona, passing through the entire mouth of the Ría de Vigo, the Cíes Islands that seem a stone's throw from here, the Ría de Pontevedra with the Ons Islands, the entire Costa de la Vela, Finisterre and above all the immensity of the Atlantic Ocean.

Above we will see the excavations of the fortified town known as Beróbriga. You can see almost fifty circular houses, of which a few acquire unusual measurements of between five and seven meters in diameter and, above all, countless stones scattered throughout the slope from the houses and walls that surrounded the enclosure.