San Andrés de Teixido, looking out to sea

If you like dramatic landscapes, with cliffs, sea and sky that melt into the clouds, Galicia offers San Andres de Teixido. It is a destination equipped in the heights, small, with few inhabitants, but famous for its sanctuary.

That's right here is the San Andrés de Teixido Sanctuary, a very famous pilgrimage destination.

San Andres de Teixido

It is a village that is in the municipality of cedeira, near some impressive cliffs overlooking the sea. Its name derives from teixos, yew trees, in Castilian, and is located just 12 kilometers from Cedeira, in A Coroña. It is inhabited by only 50 people and it is 140 meters above the sea, on 600-meter high cliffs ...

This site is also known by the name of San Andrés not Cabo do Mundo or San Andrés de Lonxe, both definitions in relation to its remote location. Remote, it is true, but beautiful because the landscape is a true postcard. And a good way to appreciate it is make the distance between Cedeira and San Andrés walking, crossing the Capelada mountain range. What panoramic views please!

It is not the only way, in fact there are several pilgrimage paths that end in the Sanctuary of San Andrés de Teixido and going through them involves several days because they do not make a direct route but rather cross through other localities. But whichever way you choose, never miss the opportunity to step on the viewpoints: The To Garita da Herbeira It is 625 meters high and the Os Carris at a slightly lower height, 425 meters, but just as beautiful.

However, why is there a shrine here visited by pilgrims? The story says that one day ended there San Andres, crashed with his boat against the coast, in the encounter of the mountain range with the Atlantic Ocean. There is actually a rock here that looks like a boat. Past the fear of shipwreck, decided to reward life and thank God by building a church and evangelizing to the local Celts. But it was not so simple because people lived in very small and distant groups and I already saw that they could not compete with Santiago de Compostela.

The situation got a bit complicated because the place was already a cult site for the druids who thought that it was like a kind of door to the other world, to the afterlife, so the need to crush that with a little good Christianity was urgent. They say that then Christ told him, «Be calm, you will not be less than Santiago. No one will enter the Kingdom of Heaven without visiting you. And if he did not do it while he was alive, he would have to appeal dead ».

It seems that the message took effect because today it is the second most visited sanctuary in Galicia after Santiago de Compostela, with thousands of locals and foreigners. The temple dates from the year 1785 although it already existed in the XNUMXth century. It is a place where Christianity is mixed with pagan rites and pre-Christian traditions. and that is evident when the story is heard that the souls of those who did not visit the sanctuary alive do so in the form of reptiles and insects that abound on the roads that lead to it.

After what was said by Christ, that is the main legend around the sanctuary: If you do not visit it alive, you will reincarnate in an insect or reptile local or you will as suffering soul during the pilgrimage that takes place at the beginning of September. For this reason also, pilgrims have the custom of carrying and throwing a stone on the road to form the «thousands of you»And to know on the Day of Judgment who complied with visiting the sanctuary and who did not. Thus, it is still common to see these piles of stones in sacred places or crossroads, formed over the centuries by thousands of pilgrims.

Another tradition indicates that you have to throw a bread crumb into the Tres Caños fountain, from the late eighteenth century, which is said to be a spring that gushes out from under the altar. If the crumb floats, the saint will be good to us and if not, then better to pray a lot. Back home you can even take a «sanandres«, An amulet made from unleavened breadcrumbs, baked and painted.

They come in different forms: a hand to ask for studies, a flower for love, a sardine for food, a boat for travel protection, the figure of a saint for friendship and health, a crown and a dove for luck and a ladder for work. And if the amulets are not enough then you can take Herba of Namonar that solves love problems.

All of this is part of the ingrained traditions that is around the Sanctuary of San Andrés de Teixido. Walk one of the paths on foot, buy these little bread figures, visit the hermitage, pray, go to the fountain and drink from the three pipes without resting your hands on the wall, make wishes and throw the breadcrumb to see if it floats. or not. More than drinking, it is about supporting the lips since the water is not drinkable.

After leaving the hermitage, you must go to the seashore to look for the powerful grass if you have a love theme, or marine carnation or xuncos de ben give birth. With that one returns to the sanctuary and always, but always, you have to be careful about stepping on and not killing any insects because they all carry souls of those who were not here when they were alive.

The truth is that regardless of whether or not you comply with these customs or the stories related to death that are no longer so popular today, the pilgrimage is a very happy party and it has something of a carnival in the sense of liberation from desires, fertility and the erotic. A not very Christian combination but typical of religious syncretism and one of the most popular festivals in Galicia. Do not miss it!


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