The Camino begins at the Corrubedo Lighthouse, in front of an impressive maritime landscape not very different from the one that, two thousand years ago, could have welcomed the apostolic boat. This first stage covers a good part of the Natural Park of the Dunes of Corrubedo and Lagunas de Carregal and Vixán, one of the areas of greatest interest, due to its biology and landscape, in Galicia. The pilgrim first visits the fishing village of Corrubedo and then goes, surrounding Monte Facho, to the parish church of Olveira, then continuing through the towns of Bretal and Sirves, to reach the Natural Park a little further on.

From that moment on, the pilgrim immerses himself, through specially enabled trails in the natural space, admiring the famous mobile dune (the largest in the northwest of the peninsula) and the salt marshes of O Carregal, with brackish waters. In the distance, the open sea. The final stretch of the first stage returns the pilgrim to the hard asphalt and leads him to a simple building, the Chapel of Nosa Señora de A Guía, already in the parish of Carreira, where the day ends.

The footprint of the Apostle

In the place of Cantón, near the peaceful beach of O Prado in Corrubedo, we find a set of rocks that keep one of the greatest mysteries of rock art in Barbanza. We are talking about the Piedra de Santiaguiño, a petroglyph with three strange marks, which represent a sword, a snake and a circle.

Although researchers and scholars have not yet been able to translate their meaning, popular tradition in the area identifies these marks with the footprint of the Apostle Santiago's horse, carrying a sword, at the time of stepping on and killing a snake.

The legend of Valverde

According to legend, in the parish of Olveira there existed many years ago an important coastal town called Valverde. The fishing industry and trade brought fortune and prosperity to its inhabitants. However, over the years, as the wealth of Valverde's residents increased, so did their greed. Selfishness and mistrust led to increasingly serious disputes, and the general discontent was taken advantage of by a tyrannical mayor to enrich himself at the expense of his fellow citizens.

The situation became unbearable, and Valverde went into decline. One day, a woman came to the village covered in a white cloak and carrying a child in her arms. The visitor announced a terrible curse that was about to devastate the town, as divine punishment for her greed. Ignored and despised by the local leader, the woman left seeking refuge in the A Curota mountain. Shortly after, a terrible storm broke out that flooded the town, burying it under mountains of sand, in the place now occupied by the Corrubedo dunes.

Chapel of A Guide

We finish the route in the Chapel of Our Lady of A Guía, in the Riverside parish of Carreira, closely linked to the seafaring traditions of the area. Previously, there was a small chapel for mendicant monks in this place, erected in the 15th century, which was built to house a figure of the Virgin found by the town's sailors in a nearby sandy area. In this hermitage, a building with simple lines, masonry walls and a rectangular floor plan, the most important pilgrimage in the region is celebrated on the Monday following Easter Pentecost. In ancient times, there was a tradition of burning old boats in the atrium of the chapel to bless the new ones, before throwing them into the sea.

In this place full of history and symbolism we conclude the first stage of the Camino A Orixe.