Salgado Dunes & Quinta de São Gião (NAZ13S)

A walk through the wild dunes and beach of Salgado with a visit to the ruins of the Visigoth chapel at Quinta de São Gião

Wednesday, April 15 10:00

The Walk:  This circular route starts with a walk through dunes of Praia Salgado, a protected ecological area. We will follow a narrow path through dunes taking care to stay on the trail and not disturb the environment. The native plants have evolved to survive in this harsh environment, but not us. When we reach the Rio Alcoa we follow it to where it meets the ocean and then walk on Salgado beach enjoying the wind, waves and sand until we find a path that leads inland toward Quinta São Gião. After a visit to the ruins of the Igreja São Gião we return to the starting point along the beach access road.

About Igreja de São Gião: This site has been clasified as a National Historic site since 1986. It has been extensively studied by archeologists, however, the history of this site is still incomplete. The religious use of this site dates to the 1st century BC. Brutus (yes, THAT Brutus) built a temple dedicated to the god Neptune. Later, when the Visigoths inhabited this area in the 7th century, they built one of the first Christian temples on the Iberian peninsula at this site using some of the stones from the Roman temple. The existing ruins also show signs of the 10th century Mozarbic architectural style, unique to Christians living under Muslim rule in the Iberian peninsula at that time. There are other aspects of the construction that point to the Asturians who lived mostly to the north in Spain. This would date the site to more recent time, around the 15th century during the Reconquista.