A Coruña · ES
A Coruña: Old Town & Glass City Highlights
Along the famous glass galleries and through the old town of the Galician port, from the heroine's square to the sea fort and the garden of a fallen general.
What's the walk about?
Welcome to A Coruña, a proud and windswept Atlantic port in Galicia, in the far northwest of Spain, a city almost encircled by the sea. Famous as the Glass City for the dazzling white galleries that line its harbour, A Coruña is also a city of deep history, watched over by the Tower of Hercules, the oldest working lighthouse in the world, a Roman monument that still guides ships today. On this gentle loop through the compact old town we take in those shimmering glass galleries, the grand square named after a local heroine, ancient churches, a tranquil convent, a romantic garden holding the grave of a British general, and a star-shaped fort out in the harbour. Wrap up against the fresh Atlantic breeze, and let this salty, soulful Galician city win you over.
What you'll see
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1
Museo de Bellas Artes
Museum
A Coruña's fine arts museum, housed in a striking modern building incorporating an old convent, with a notable collection of Galician art and a famous series of engravings by Goya.
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2
Plaza de María Pita
Square
The grand, arcaded main square of A Coruña, dominated by the domed Palacio Municipal and named after María Pita, the heroine who rallied the city's defence against an English attack in 1589.
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3
Casa Museo Emilia Pardo Bazán
Museum
The elegant town house, now a museum, of Emilia Pardo Bazán, the pioneering nineteenth-century Galician novelist, feminist and one of the most important figures in Spanish literature.
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4
Iglesia de Santiago
Church
The oldest church in A Coruña, a solid Romanesque and Gothic building of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, dedicated to Saint James and linked to the English Way of the pilgrimage.
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5
Plaza de Azcárraga
Square
A tranquil, leafy square in the heart of the old town, shaded by tall magnolia trees and centred on an elegant old fountain, one of the most charming corners of A Coruña.
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6
Colegiata de Santa María del Campo
Church
A fine Romanesque and Gothic collegiate church of the old town, built from the thirteenth century for the city's mariners and guilds, with a richly carved doorway and a sloping floor.
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7
Convento de Santa Bárbara
Convent
A serene convent of enclosed nuns on one of the prettiest and most peaceful little squares in the old town, with a weathered medieval relief above its church door.
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8
Jardín de San Carlos
Garden
A romantic walled garden laid out on an old artillery bastion, shaded by elms and holding the tomb of Sir John Moore, the British general killed defending the city's retreat in 1809.
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9
Castillo de San Antón
Fortress
A sixteenth-century star-shaped fortress built on a former islet to guard the entrance to the harbour, later a prison, and now home to the city's archaeological museum.
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