Seafaring Vigo

The walk through seafaring Vigo is a perfect option for beach and history enthusiasts. On a simple, one and a half hour route through stately Vigo, you can admire the architecture linked to the sea, the area where the city extended when it began to overflow its historic walls. This is the Ensanche, the first urban expansion, a street plan of interest in itself along with its buildings.

This route begins in the tourist office, next to the cruise ship pier. From there you can already see the outline of the Universal Hotel, one of the buildings emerged from the city’s maritime wealth.  After the hotel’s restoration, its outside terrace became a famous meeting point.

Behind it you’ll find the Alameda Park, or Praza de Compostela, an elongated garden and park surrounded by buildings commissioned by entrepreneurs, shipping agents or industrialists to some of the best architects in the country, such as Jenaro de la Fuente.

At the end of the park, on your left, you’ll see another type of architecture also linked to the sea but much more recent. As part of the recovery of the city’s coastline that began a couple of decades ago, new administrative buildings arose, like the Galician Xunta (regional government) complex that stands presiding Praza da Estrela square. Spaces like this, the parks and paths that dot the area, were designed to give the people of Vigo a leisure spot by the sea. The result was spaces like the paseo de las Avenidas avenue, which received the National Architecture Prize and is next to the marina.

On the way back to the route’s starting point you’ll find the headquarters of the Real Club Nautico de Vigo (Yacht Club), which resembles a ship going out to sea. The berths, where the large terminal building said goodbye to Galician emigrants, currently welcome the most modern cruise ships. These are two paradigmatic examples of the symbiosis between the city’s architecture and the ocean that gives it life

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