In some places its presence is overwhelming. On the steps and the atrium of San Martiño Pinario, in front of the Cathedral’s Azabachería façade, there are no less than fifty. Also in front of Santa Clara there is an enormous concentration, with about thirty examples between the stairs, atrium or the benches. The sides of San Fiz, the church of the Company, the façade of San Francisco, the pavement that surrounds the Hostal dos Reis Católicos, the balconies of the Casa do Cabido, the entrance of the Pazo de Amarante, La Berenguela... There is no site in Compostela within its walls in which the Baroque players did not leave their mark. Going over the engravings with your fingers and even playing a game with improvised tokens is like travelling through history to a physically and socially very different Santiago.
The presence of boards is not limited to the interior of the old medieval wall, demolished in the 19th century. You can also find alquerques in cruceiros such as those of Conxo or Santa Marta; in the chapel of Carme de Abaixo; in the convent of Belvís; or, of course, in the Collegiate Church of Sar. A new board emerges with each new exploration to add to the list, which has already been sent to the Directorate General of Heritage for consideration. In fact, it is to be imagined that many will have been lost over the decades with the periodic renewal of pavements. On the A Rula Collective’s website you can find a very useful map that serves as a guide for board hunters. Be warned: the effort to find them all is enormous, and once the first ones are found it is impossible not to see this memory everywhere.
UNIQUES TREES
A New Zealander in Monte Alto In the facilities of the Local Police of A Coruña stands an impressive tree, a 20 metre high metrosidero and almost 25 metres of circumference at the top. Its age remains a mystery, and it is certainly significant: it may be old enough to prove that the discoverers of New Zealand, its homeland, were the Spaniards, not the English. Historians such as Xosé Alfeirán, a few months ago in the pages of the newspaper La Opinión; and journalists such as Silvia R. Pontevedra, in El País, have recently explained the historical dilemma. Botanists have not been able to date the exact planting date of the metrosidero, almost certainly the oldest tree in the city. It is supposed to be about 200 years old, but because of its size (the trunk measures 8 metres in circumference) it indicates that it could be 500. Bearing in mind that official history says that New Zealand, from which the seeds must have come, was discovered by the Dutchman Tasman in 1642 and explored by the Englishman Cook in 1769, what is a practically contemporary specimen, if not earlier than these historical milestones doing in Galicia? This pohutukawa, as the Maori natives call it, is one of the pieces of evidence to which historians who refute the official history of the discovery and colonisation of New Zealand by the British cling to. Some scholars argue that the Spaniards, or perhaps the Portuguese, were on the islands earlier, even in the early 16th century. It would be on the way back from one of these expeditions when someone planted the tree. From the lower part of the trunk of the “iron tree” of A Coruña hangs a Maori amulet brought by a New Zealander to remind the tree of its origins. This monumental metrosidero may not be proof of New Zealand’s Hispanic past, since a widespread theory says it was planted on the site a couple of centuries ago, when there was a soap factory in the area. The carballeira of Santa Susana We call oaks those deciduous trees of the genus Quercus, which, in turn, receive the name of carballo in Galician. Carballeira, with its genuine and singing diphthong is, therefore, the Galician form of oak grove. 94
Today’s man sees the forest with the eyes of reason. However, those who preceded us saw in the forest an expression of divinity due to its longevity and corpulence, part of its animist pantheon, expression of its dendromy. Oaks were associated throughout Europe with the main god: Zeus among the Greeks, Jupiter among the Romans, Toutatis among the Gauls, Thor among the Scandinavians or Donar among the Germans. In the Christianisation process of Europe, many of the original beliefs were assimilated, as in the association of chapels and Galician rural churches to remnants of the native forest, the carballeira, was sometimes reduced to a few trees. This is the carballeira of Santa Susana, settled in an old castro, surrounded by a dense forest, part of the famous and mythological Libredón, which extended to the current city of Santiago, where the hermit Pelayo (Paio, in Galician) saw lights that led to the discovery of the tomb of the Apostle. It cannot be said that this carballeira is the remains of that primitive forest but its reflection, extended to the carballeira of San Lorenzo, to the west of Santiago de Compostela. Hidden among the leaves of the trees, the ancient respect and veneration inspired by the oaks is maintained. They are guarantors of justice, which is imparted by men with the blessing of God, represented by the tree. There is some reference to the execution of those condemned by the Tribunal of the Holy Office, known simply as the Inquisition, in the castro of Santa Susana, foreseeably in the carballeira, which, if it were true, would just be added to the traditions of hanging those condemned from an oak. The traditional cattle market, established in Santa Susana until 1971, points to this on the same way. Méndez Núñez and Its Palms The city of A Coruña has been built in physical relationship with the sea. The Portus Magnus Artabrorum was configured as a natural inlet and place of shelter in which the sea of the Roman finisterrae became tamed. The tide gently reached a sandy area, allowing the flow of goods and travellers arriving in the city. Later, the beach became a stony wall that geometrized the concavity of the bay, redefining the relationship between the sea and its land, between the work of the port and the city.