Santa Marta Viewpoint

The views of the village of Santa Marta deserve a special mention, as well as the landscapes that the PR-G 249 hiking route passes through on the way to this viewpoint. These are lands full of history that are worth learning more about.

In the year 1144, King Alfonso VII donated the village of Santa Marta as a farm for the Monastery of Santa María de Castro de Rei (which no longer exists). The monks began to work on that land, primarily by restoring old wine storage structures, planting new vineyards, and maintaining fishing activities and watermills. 

Not long afterwards, in 1506, Santa María de Castro de Rei was annexed to the Monastery of Santa María de Montederramo, which meant that the village of Santa Marta came to be affiliated with that monastery as well. For centuries, Santa Marta supplied provisions to those monasteries, by paying tributes in the form of large quantities of wine, eels, and even eel pies.

Today, there are hardly any vineyards still in production, and most of the walls that were put up with so much effort and sacrifice are now useful only as a place to sit for those walking from Santa Marta, as they rest in the shade of the pine groves that now grow in this area.