Sálvora and the Casitérides

About this heritage

Although the primitive societies spread throughout Galicia, no evidence, studies of settlements or inhabitance of the island of Salvora at that time exist. Some remains found on the sandbanks are proof that Phoenician sailors had traversed the area but provide no proof of their actually visiting the island. Hence, the well-known history of Salvora begins at the end of the early Medieval Age when, as part of the Galician-Asturian crown, Alfonso II (a.k.a. “The Chaste”) donated it to the Church of Santiago. On the other hand, the theories that situate the mythical Cassiterides islands of which the Romans speak, point to this island as one of them.

To learn more

Cassiterides is the name given by the Greeks to the production of tin (kassiteros) islands situated at the West Coast of Europe. Pliny the Elder, in his 'Natural History', points out that the first Greek to reach the Cassiterides was Midwritte, an individual of whom nothing else is known. Historians and geographers such as Ptolemy, Herodotus and Strabo also allude to these rich islands, which the 18th century Galician geographer José Cornide, undoubtedly situates on the Altantic coast of Galicia. It is believed that the Phoenicians were already aware of tin route or Cassiterides. These were routes that the Carthaginians would have kept hidden until Roman times, given their great importance. According to Cornide, Sálvora would have been one of these ten mythical islands.

Herodotus, when referring to the boundaries of the western world in his III book of “History” mentions the Cassiterides and identifies these as island from which Greek tin came from, although he acknowledges that he cannot confirm its existence. Strabo, in his “Geography”. Strabo, in his "Geography", affirms that these are ten islands located near the port of the artabros (which inhabited the region around present-day A Coruña) and maintains that the Phoenicians were the first to arrive there. He also refers to how the Romans insistently attempted to reach the Cassiterides Islands, but when the Phoenician ships sailing the ocean towards the Galician coasts discovered that they were being followed, they had their boats grounded in order to preserve the secret of the route. The Greek mathematician, geographer and astronomer Ptolemy also mentions them.

From Aveiro's work "Ora marítima" (4th century B.C.), which relates the maritime feats of the Phoenicians 800 centuries ago, the main archaeological school of thought identifies their exact location in Brittany or the British Isles and that Phoenicians trading throughout the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula was a step ahead toward the Cassiterides. Today, however, archaeological data seems to indicate otherwise. There is no Phoenician evidence either in French Brittany or Great Britain, while in Galicia there is. The richness of tin in the Galician estuaries and the numerous samples of important metallurgical activity in the transition from Bronze to Iron seem to prove it.

The Galician geographer, naturalist and humanist José Cornide de Saavedra y Folgueira (A Coruña, 1743-Madrid, 1803) defends the geographical situation of the Cassiterides on the Galician coasts, known since ancient times for their abundance of mines, and points out that the Phoenicians traded with the inhabitants of Galicia. The geographer based this on the texts of classical historians and geographers and identifies these islands in "the lowlands of Corrubedo, the islands of Sálvora, Arousa, Cortegada, Grove, Ons and Cíes, Baiona, and smaller ones of the Arousa Estuary".

To know it better

The island of Salvora is located on the Galician Rias Baixas, more precisely, on the Arousa estuary, and has some magnificent beaches and dunes. Toward the north of the island is the small village of Salvora, proof of inhabitants in ancient times. It cannot be specified, however, whether the inhabitants were Phoenicians. The island was used as a military base for Vikings and Saracens in the Late Middle Ages, as well as for pirates and buccaneers between the 16th and 18th centuries.

Cassiterides or Kassiterides was the name given to the Tin Islands by the Greeks. Since the Bronze Age tin, together with copper, was a necessary metal required for the production of bronze, thus allowing for utensils to be made from a more resistant metal. The Phoenicians were aware of the importance of tin, and went in search for it throughout the Mediterranean.