We are in the estuary of the river Eume. At some 12km up river, the Fragas of the Eume Natural Park is found, the longest conserved Atlantic forest and a unique ecosystem next to the sea and covered in mist. It is also has faunal importance.
A “fraga” is a forest formation originating in Galicia, common in the Atlantic climate, with abundant vegetation and a place where deciduous species predominate, especially Oak, Quercus robur) and is situated in zones that are difficult to access.
The Fragas of the Eume are where the river formed a narrow and abrupt valley. There is a legend about this abrupt countryside. There were three rivers that could feel the call of the sea. The first to arrive would receive the sacrifice of one person each year as a reward. They began travelling and when night fell, they rested. They agreed that the first to awaken would wake the others in order to continue together. But when Eume awoke, its companions had already gone; it then began a rapid march, jumping over everything that came in its way in order to get to the sea first. As a result, its riverbed is torturous; it traverses a rough countryside and falls rapidly.
Due to its isolation, it was a zone of hermits at the beginning of the middle ages, with the Monastery of Caaveiro being founded at the end of the 9th century in a privileged countryside in the middle of a Fraga.