History of Arzúa
Arzúa is a town in A Coruña where the Camino Francés joins the Camino del Norte, and it gives its name to the protected-origin Arzúa-Ulloa cheese. The 12th-century Codex Calixtinus records it as “Vilanova”, a sign of medieval origin or refoundation.
Long before it was cheese country, Arzúa was the “new town” of medieval pilgrims.
Origins and the Camino
The town grew up with the Camino: there is hardly any record of it before the pilgrimages. The Codex calls it Vilanova, and the Italian Domenico Laffi noted it in 1666 as “Villa Roza”.
An Augustinian convent once took in pilgrims here; its Magdalena chapel survives as a cultural space.
Anecdotes, curiosities and legends
In nearby Castañeda, says the Codex Calixtinus, stood the lime kilns for the cathedral: pilgrims carried a stone from Triacastela and left it here.
Just before town, the medieval Ribadiso bridge crosses the river Iso. Every March the Festa do Queixo brings the area’s cheesemakers to Arzúa.
What not to miss in Arzúa
- Capela da Madalena
- Church of Santiago: with St James as pilgrim and as Moor-slayer
- Ponte de Ribadiso: medieval bridge over the Iso
Pilgrim tip
Try Arzúa-Ulloa cheese, a mild, creamy cow’s-milk cheese, with local honey: it is the taste of the town.
