culture

THE APPLICATION PERIOD OPENS FOR STALLS IN THE VIKING FESTIVAL MARKET 2023

On June 1, the period to apply for positions in the Viking festival opens. The medieval market will be open on August 5 and 6 at the “Torres de Oeste” site, coinciding with the days of the “Viking Lunch” and the Viking Landing, respectively.

Interested persons can consult the bases and download the application form on the bulletin board of the electronic office of the City Hall: https://catoira.sedelectronica.gal/board

VIKING FESTIVAL PROGRAM 2023

TUESDAY 1, WEDNESDAY 2 AND THURSDAY 3 AUGUST / “Torres de Oeste” site

10:15 p.m. / Theater: “Un neno vikingo”, based on the work by Kristina Berg

THURSDAY, AUGUST 3 / “Torres de Oeste” site

9:00 p.m. / Concert by: Clara Pino & Pablo Vidal

FRIDAY, AUGUST 4:

9:30 p.m. / Parade of Upsala Medieval from Town Hall’s Alameda to the Fluvial Beach.

Vikinsons Music Fest / Catoira’s Fluvial Beach’s Alameda.

10:00 p.m. / Concerts by:

• Luar na Lubre

• Skáld

SATURDAY, AUGUST 5:

Medieval market throughout the day. / “Torres de Oeste” site /

2:30 p.m. / Viking Lunch / “Torres de Oeste” site / Ticket sales.

4:00 p.m. / Performances by Upsala Medieval / “Torres de Oeste” site /

5:00 p.m. / Children’s Viking costume parade / “Torres de Oeste” site /

7:30 p.m. / Concert by: Uxía Lambona e a Banda Molona / “Torres de Oeste” site /

8:30 p.m. / Parade of Upsala Medieval from “Torres de Oeste” Campus to the Fluvial Beach.

Vikinsons Music Fest / Catoira’s Fluvial Beach’s Alameda.

9:00 p.m. / Concerts by:

• Bloody Sunrise

• Celtas Cortos

• Dakidarría

• Lontreira

SUNDAY, AUGUST 6 / Viking Landing / “Torres de Oeste” site

10:00 a.m. / Parade of folkloric groups from the Town Hall’s Alameda to the “Torres de Oeste” site.

11:00 a.m. / Mussels and red wine from Ulla and medieval market in the “Torres de Oeste” site

12:00 p.m. / Performances by Troula and Upsala Medieval in the “Torres de Oeste” site

12:30 p.m. / Dramatization of the Viking landing in the “Torres de Oeste” site

1:45 p.m. / Performances by Troula e Upsala Medieval in the “Torres de Oeste” site

2:00 p.m. / Picnic lunch

7:00 p.m. / Rudi Dudi – Clownamorado in the Town Hall’s Alameda.

8:30 p.m. / Concert by TOR – Celtic folk from Galiza in the Town Hall’s Alameda.

This Friday, April 21, the mayor, Alberto García, presented at the Estrella Galicia Museum (A Coruña) the program for the 63rd edition of the Viking Pilgrimage, which is held in the first week of August. The mayor was accompanied by Loreto Rodríguez, head of earned media at Estrella Galicia, the festival’s sponsor; Nuria Bouzas Loureiro, author of the poster for this edition; and Fátima I. Rey, director of the Municipal School “Úrsula Teatro” of Catoira.

The presentation was preceded by a brief dramatization by a dozen actresses and actors from the Theater School, which served as an appetizer for what will arrive in August.

One of the novelties included this year is the conversion of the Viking Dinner into a lunch. After the interruption of this activity during the pandemic, this demanded event will resume on Saturday, August 5, but with the novelty that this year it will become a “Viking Meal”, so as not to overlap with other activities, especially the nightly programming. VikinSons festival. Precisely, the musical festival poster is another of the highlights of this edition, which will feature performances by Celtas Cortos, Dakidarría, Luar na Lubre and the successful Nordic music group Skáld, among others.

VIKING FESTIVAL PROGRAM 2023

TUESDAY 1, WEDNESDAY 2 AND THURSDAY 3 AUGUST / 10:15 p.m. / West Towers Site

Theater: “Un neno vikingo”, based on the work of Kristina Berg

THURSDAY, AUGUST 3 / 9:00 pm / West Towers Site

Concert: Clara Pino & Pablo Vidal

FRIDAY, AUGUST 4:

Upsala Medieval parade from Town Hall Park to Catoira Fluvial Beach

VIKINSONS / 10:00 pm / Catoira Fluvial Beach Park. Concerts:

• Luar na Lubre

• Skáld

SATURDAY, AUGUST 5:

Viking Food / 2:30 p.m. / West Towers Site / Ticket sales.

Medieval Market

Viking costume children’s parade

“Upsala Medieval” performance

7:30 p.m. – Concert: Uxía Lambona e a Banda Molona

Upsala Medieval parade from the West Towers Site to Fluvial Beach Park.

VIKINSONS / 9:00 pm / Catoira Fluvial Beach Park. Concerts:

• Bloody Sunrise

• Celtas Cortos

• Dakidarría

• Lontreira

SUNDAY, AUGUST 6

Viking Landing / West Towers Site

10:00 am Parade of folkloric groups from Town Hall Park to the West Towers Site.

11:00 a.m. Mussels and red wine from Ulla, and medieval market in the West Towers Site.

12:00 pm Performances by Troula and “Upsala Medieval” in the West Towers Site

12:30 pm Dramatization of the Viking landing in the West Towers

1:45 p.m. Performances by Troula and “Upsala Medieval” in the West Towers Site

2:00 p.m. Picnic lunch

The Catoira City Council has just installed new exhibition resources in the Cultural Activation Center (CACTO) in the presence of Mayor Alberto García. It is an information panel on the Visigoth period, together with a replica of a coin stamped in Catoira, and another panel on the “rolled sign” that Archbishop Xelmírez used to authenticate his documents.

At the end of the 6th century, the Visigoths expelled the Swabians and turned Galicia into a Gothic province. At that stage there are indications of the presence of a mint in Catoira in which coins could be minted. Now you can see in the CACTUS the replica of a gold coin from the time of King Witericus (603-609) that bears the word CATORA inscribed on the reverse.

The panel above Xelmírez’s signature graphically reproduces the characteristic “rolled sign” used by the archbishop since 1115 as a symbol of authority in his documents.

On Wednesday 10th November, Catoira holds the thematic session “The vikings and the wine in Galicia”. The event will take place in Celso Emilio Ferreiro room, at the Town Hall of Catoira. It includes the presentation of Eduardo Morales book “The vikings in Galicia”. The president of the Destination Viking Association (DVA) Ole Madsen will attend this event, invited by the mayor Alberto García.

This event marks the beginning of a project that the Catoira Council has planned to carry out next year, and which includes the holding of a seminar on the links between the Vikings Route and the Camino de Santiago cultural itineraries, as well as a study to trace a Viking route between Catoira and Santiago de Compostela. The seminar will take place during the first week of August 2022, coinciding with the celebration of the Viking Pilgrimage and the Albariño Festival, both celebrations recognized as festivals of International Tourist Interest. One of the objectives of this project, which has the support of the Xunta de Galicia, is to take advantage of the relationships between these routes to promote the internationalization of the two celebrations.

Program:

• 10:30 Welcome from the mayor of Catoira, Alberto García
• 10:45 Presentation by Eduardo Morales: «The Vikings in Galicia». Former Chancellor of the Spanish Embassy in Denmark, archaeologist and researcher, author of numerous articles and publications on Scandinavian culture and the Vikings.
• 11:30 Presentation of Ole Madsen: Destination Viking Association. Director of the Archaeological Museum of the University of Stavanger (Norway).
• 12:00 Jorge Vila Fernández: presentation on Albariño wine. Sommelier and director of the Galicia Wine Academy.
• 12:30 Albariño wine tasting.
• 13:00 Closing by the territorial delegate of the Xunta de Galicia in Pontevedra.

This presentation event is open to all residents who want to attend.

We also remember that the municipal public library has copies of the book.

After three weeks of opening to the public, the Torres de Oeste Cultural Activation Center (CACTO), is exceeding expectations in terms of the number of visits and evaluations. During this period, the exhibition facilities were visited by more than 500 people.

People who come to the center especially appreciate the possibility of knowing how the Viking Pilgrimage takes place. The visit allows an approach to the footprint of the Nordic peoples and to the Pilgrimage that is held every summer in Catoira, as a festival of international tourist interest, with a large-format video-production in the basement, which allows you to relive the Viking landing in the first place person.

The CACTO was born as an interpretation center for Torres de Oeste. An approach to the history of this enclave: an island at the mouth of the Ulla river that constituted the access door and protection border from the ocean to the interior of Galicia and the lands of Compostela “Torres de Oeste, key and seal of Galicia “.

With this look, a journey is made from the past of prehistory in the environment, the primitive commercial maritime traffic in the Castro culture and continued during the Roman Empire, when we already found the identification of “Turris Augusti” at the mouth of the Ulla river. In the high Middle Ages, the enclave took on a new role, with the reconstruction and reinforcement of the fortification, already named “Castellum Honesti”, to face the incursions of new threats from the sea: the “men from the north” in search of riches in Jakobusland – as Galicia was called -. Beyond the stage of Viking raids, the Galician coasts suffered from the Almorabid pirates approached by sea from the south of the peninsula. In this context, the figure of Diego Xelmírez emerges, who lived as a child in the Torres de Oeste castle itself, and who later, as archbishop of Santiago, gave a boost to the defenses of the Arousa estuary, in the Castelo de West, and promoted the construction, in the shipyards of the river Ulla, of the first fleet of galleys of the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, to defend and successfully combat the incursions on the coasts of the Galician estuaries.

The center has information panels, an exhibition of replicas that contextualize different stages in the history of the Towers, and various audiovisual units that allow an interactive and immersive insight into the contents of the exhibition. On the upper floor there is a space for cultural activity dedicated to presentations and workshops for school visits. Meanwhile, this space is used as an exhibition extension with a look at the cultural heritage of the City Council of Catoira.