Upstream we find St Salvador de Lérez Monastery, which was founded in the 9th century. Pontevedra’s history began with this monastery. There is nothing left about the first Romanesque factory. The present-day church is Neo-classical and so is his major altarpiece. Here is St Benedict’s chapel, as the famous song says:
Si vas a san Benitiño
non vaias ó de paredes,
que hai outro máis milagreiro,
San Benitiño de Lérez.
The illustrious Galician Father Feijoo and Father Sarmiento studied and taught here. Both of them are remembered in a commemorative tablet on the façade of the old Benedictine house.
The marine district called La Moureira settled on the mouth of the river Lérez. The ship Santamaría (The Galician one) is thought to have been built in the wharf Las Corbaceiras for the expedition of America’s discovery. Today we can only see ground - floor houses with mitre - shaped façades because of the roofs inclination.
The village by-laws from the 16th century did not let those who did not work on the sea live in La Moreira.
In his Descripción del Reino de Galicia (Description of Galicia’s Kingdom) Molina said that Pontevedra loaded

Navíos que pasan de ciento
de tantos pescados y mantenimiento
que hincha a otros Reinos y a la AndalucÍa.
Pontevedra was especially important for its relation with the sea in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, although his business importance went on until the middle of the 18th. But wars, plagues, migrations, business changes and floods made its business and transport importance decay.

The walled city began at the end of the bridge. Pontevedra had a Wall, which started to be built in the 13th century and was preserved until the middle of the 19th. It was 2,170 metres long whose last section went through the present - day streets

Arzobispo Malvar (where there are still some remains next to St Mary’s Church),

Michelena,

Cobian Rofignac,

Amoedo and

Avenida de Buenos Aires.
Unluckily, the wall is nowadays just a memory.
We are again at the end of the bridge Puente del Burgo to start the journey across the city.
In spite of being on the doors of the old city we get into the intense activity of the modern city. Today like yesterday life starts in Pontevedra in Puente del Burgo (Burgo bridge).
Our first destiny is Santa María la Mayor founded by the powerful "Gremio de Mareantes do Corpo Santo" just in the place that long ago had been occupied by the Romanesque church called Santa María la Antigua.
It was erected in the first half of the 16th century.
About the façade, built by Cornelis de Holanda and Juan Noble, Cunqueiro said ‘La había patinado el viento del mar o la mirada de los que llegaron, en naves, desde lejanos puertos, con la nostalgia de la villa natal’.
With a combination of ogival and plateresque styles, it is the first monument in Pontevedra and one of the most beautiful of the Gothic -Isabelline in Galicia. It was given the rank of basilica by Pope John XXIII.
It occupies the top of the old hill fort, a sacred place in Pontevedra. It has basilical floor with lateral chapels that give it a cross shape.
We go up the wide steps - modified in the middle of the 19th century. In the main façade, which is like a three-bodied altarpiece among buttresses, several motifs are represented as for example a Passing of the Virgin on an arch of the main front. Mary’s coronation on the rose window. A Calvary on the top. And St Miguel and Teucro, who founded the city, on the buttresses.
On the right door there are medallions of the Emperor Charles I and his wife. Next to it we find Cristo del Buen Viaje (the Christ of Good Journey), who sailors said goodbye to before embarking. The polygonal apse is the oldest part.
Inside, there are three naves separated by groups of columns. We must stand out the Baroque altarpieces and the chapels La Concepción (with the tomb of Diego de Arango), St Miguel (with the tomb of Mariños de Lobeira) and CorpoSanto, which has the same name as ‘Gremio de Mareantes’, who founded this church.
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