Sources

Route 17 – Paredes Fountain

The Fonte de Paredes, located on Monte do Gozo in Santiago de Compostela, is a small stone fountain set in a natural environment, surrounded by ferns and native vegetation. It is formed by a quarry wall from which a thread of water flows through a metal pipe. At the base, two wells collect the water that flows gently into a channel dug into the stone, which leads it uphill. It is a simple place but full of symbolism, which offers a moment of rest and reflection for pilgrims on the final stretch of the Camino de Santiago.

Route 3 – Ramelle fountain

Pintoresca fuente de piedra con forma redonda ubicada en la orilla del camino.

Route 12 – Cervantes Square

Cervantes Square was known in the XII century as the “Forum”, as it was a popular reunion spot and the place where the town crier read the municipal agreements and the Archbishop’s ordinances. Because of this informative vocation, one of its streets, of important commercial activity, was called “del Preguntoiro” (derived from the verb preguntar, which means “to ask”). In a corner the building erected in 1682 for the old City Hall is located, which occupied the solar for 200 years, from 1583 until its move in 1787 to Raxoi Palace. Today, it’s the only Baroque municipal building left intact in Galicia. An inside restoration allowed for the discovery of the old public scribe offices, the chapel, the archive and the dungeons: it’s known that in the square autos-da-fé were performed during Inquisition rule, and that the column around which justice was imparted and at whose feet the scaffold was located was there until 1570. The column had previously been presiding executions in Almáciga Mount and was taken to the Santa Susana Oak Grove, from where it disappeared in the XIX century.
Afterward, as it specialized in the selling of food and wares, the area received the name of Plaza
del Campo (“Countryside Square”) and the category of main market. This also explains the name of
the San Bieito do Campo church, whose contemporary neoclassical lines don’t invite thinking the
foundation goes back to the X century.
As the market was relocated to Abastos Square by the end of the XIX century, the square took the definitive name of Cervantes. A bust of the writer crowns the fountain and reminds us that the “Don Quixote” author carried two surnames of Galician origin: Cervantes and Saavedra.

Route 10 – Santa Isabel washing places

The washhouses form a row of six spaces for washing right on the riverbank, thus taking advantage of the current of the Sarela with the prototypical configuration of the washhouse: Sloping washstone and inns around them and on the left bank as well. The pieces were restored in their day within a municipal plan that sought to rescue these constructions. Most of them are made up of a single, large and communal pylon. This basin is square or rectangular, full of water, and surrounded by inclined stones against which to rub the cloths, but in the case of the Santa Isabel washhouses we find an alignment of small individual. washhouses, perpendicular to the river, which is not unusual but less frequent among the Galician washhouses.

Route 10 – Cardinal Spinola fountain

Fountain from the XVIII century, located in the northern side of the Selva Negra. It has inscriptions on its structure and it’s surrounded by legends, such as that of a shepherd who fell in love with a nymph. It was very popular among Santiago’s citizens until the XIX century: it was a common place for walks, picnics and open-air dances.

Route 10 – Casas Novas fountain-washing place

This washing place is found in Casas Novas, on the Mount Pedroso hillside. It was built midway through the XX century, and it takes water channeled from Granxa do Xesto. It’s covered by a gable roof and located next to the neighborhood houses.

Route 10 – Do Ouro fountain

This fountain built in stone, with stairs and metal pipes is located behind the Galeras park, at the foot of Pío Mount, very close to the Finca do Espiño guards a secret related to a legend.
Tradition has it that Cotolay was a humble charcoal burner who lived on the slope of Pedroso with few means. His life changed when he met Saint Francisco de Asís, who had made a pilgrimage to Compostela. The saint and Cotolay shared advice and teachings.
Before leaving, Saint Francisco entrusted him with the construction of a temple.
The charcoal burner told him that he had no resources, so the saint assured him that he would find what he needed in a spring near his shack. So it was, Cotolay found a hidden treasure, with which he financed what we know today as the Convent of Saint Francisco (1749).

Route 9 Carme de Abaixo Fountain-Washing place

The washing place, which is in ruins, contributed to improve the quality of life before water fetching reached homes. The neighbors remember the washerwomen of Carme de Abaixo as very hardworking, humble and talkative women.

Route 9 Santa Isabel washing places

The washhouses form a row of six spaces for washing right on the riverbank, thus taking advantage of the current of the Sarela with the prototypical configuration of the washhouse: Sloping washstone and inns around them and on the left bank as well. The pieces were restored in their day within a municipal plan that sought to rescue these constructions.
Most of them are made up of a single, large and communal pylon. This basin is square or rectangular, full of water, and surrounded by inclined stones against which to rub the cloths, but in the case of the Santa Isabel washhouses we find an alignment of small individual washhouses, perpendicular to the river, which is not unusual but less frequent among the Galician washhouses.

Route 9 Pontepedriña de Arriba fountain and washing place

Restored today, possibly dating from the nineteenth century and had been built at the same time as the tanning factory. You have to go down some stone stairs to access it. It has a very elaborate fountain. The washhouses used to be public and for collective use. Most of them consist of a single washhouse surrounded by sloping stones that allowed washerwomen to wash standing up and not on their knees as in the old river washhouses. It can be used in different shapes: square, rectangular and even octagonal, they also used to be covered, which allowed them to be used on rainy days. In the nineteenth century, the construction of washhouses and fountains was a priority of the city councils, especially of the republican mayors.
Around the laundries and the washerwomen themselves, a folklore was created, or their own way of talking about the workers, and thanks to the study of this trade, we can have a vision of the social and historical context of women at the time. The greatest contribution of the construction of laundry rooms is to be one of the greatest points of socialization, especially for women -those who always went-, who shared their day to day and created authentic ties of cooperation and gatherings.