Text by Judy J. Pinegar, Pictures by John J. O’Dell

Coming into A Coruna it was a nice hotel with horrible basement parking. John did it the first time, but then they asked him to let them park the car in the future, and  John was more than happy let them!

So out for a stroll we saw the most famous sign of A Coruña, glass houses facing the marina/port, then the Plaza de Maria Pita… dedicated to Maria Pita. The English were bad neighbors here, first the Spanish Armada took off from here and failed badly, mostly due to the horrible weather. Then Sir Frances Drake the famous pirate came to take over the town, and was succeeding until Maria Pita, who  was assisting her husband, an army captain manning the defenses, when he was killed by a crossbow bolt that struck him in the head. An English soldier with a banner, who was making his way to the highest part of the wall, was killed by Pita. She appeared on the heights of the wall herself, shouting: Quen teña honra, que me siga (“Whoever has honor, follow me!”) whereupon the English incursion was driven back by the defenders. The English later gave up the assault and retreated to their ships. I always like it when the women come through!

We then went into the walled old town and saw a 12th century church, a beautiful walled garden, and views of the port.

We then came to the Plaza of Humor, with cartoons from all over the world including Disney engraved into the concrete, and a statue of a funny man… John is still mad that I put my hand on his leg!

Later we went to a archeological museum, inside of what used to be a prison, Castillo de San Anton, with Roman ruins and evidence of the later military uses.. Then a walk along the exposed coast, where we saw an odd glass structure that turned out to be the port navigation center (on high like at an airport)! and finally the Tower of Hercules, which was first a Roman Lighthouse, then made over several times to the current structure. Fairly well preserved relics were still beneath the tower, but the ceiling was about  5’6″… my son Kevin would have had to be in a crouch to see it!

One day (well actually two) the first time John had forgotten the old picture he had of his Mom’s house that he had taken when she was visiting with him in her old age. We showed the picture to two people who were born and still living in Buno and they recognized it right away and gave us directions. So we took some pictures for the family. See John beside what is now a metal door into the stone structure. His mother told him that the animals lived on the first floor, and the people lived on the second floor, which was quite common in those days.

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John J. O’Dell Realtor® GRI
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091
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