Cesantes´ Port. Fishing activity

About this heritage

Cesantes is a parish in the Pontevedra town of Redondela. It borders to the north with Soutomaior´s Town Council, to the east with Pazos de Borbén, to the south with Mos and Vigo, and to the west with the Vigo´s estuary. It is located in the San Simón cove, where the rivers Alvedosa and Maceiras flow.

Beaches of Cesantes, Punta do Cabo and Arealonga in the parish of Chapela stand out from this municipality.

Cesantes´ Port is located on the southern slope of Vigo´s estuary, in the middle of San Simón cove, characterized by its shallow depth. It has facilities recently built by the San Simón island Yatch Club. This port is protected by a dyke, from where you can reach the recently built dock. The dock has 6 mooring lines, 2 reserved for boats on the 4th list and the remaining 4 protected by restricted access where recreational boats are moored.

Although Redondela grew thanks to its location between Pontevedra and Vigo, fishing, with an essentially inshore fleet is characterized by the capture of low-priced fish. Its fish market (in Spanish “Lonja”) is certified with the PescadeRías for the commercialisation of bivalves and cephalopods.

It is also important to emphasize the importance of bivalve mollusc shellfish as the star product: choco or cuttlefish.

To learn more

As we have already said, cuttlefish fishing activity is of particular importance. The choco is a symbol of Redondela and also of its gastronomy and as it could not be otherwise, Redondela celebrates the Redondela´s Choco Festival. This popular festival is celebrated during the first fortnight of May thanks to the San Simón Cove and the abundance of this species in its waters, which are caught by the local fishermen using traditional gear such as nasas (fishing baskets), with which they catch specimens that can reach 2 kg.

In Redondela, the mussel´s festival is also celebrated in the first or second week of September, this time in Chapela parish. Mussels are grown in rafts, facilities that are scattered throughout Vigo estuary. Finally, the chapter of gastronomic festivals closes every first Sunday of October with the Apple Festival, a fruit that is grown throughout the valley of the Maceiras river.

Redondela has its own industrial history. A metal loading bay, a canning factory, a metalworks and a fish salting factory, which later became a canning factory, were established on the south bank of the San Simón cove.

In Redondela we can find a wide range of leisure possibilities, and not only related to its ports and beaches, but also with a rich history that goes back to the megalithic era, churches, pazos (traditional manor houses) or the viaduct of the Vigo-Ourense-Madrid railway line.

To know it better

San Pedro de Cesantes or Cesantes is a parish of the municipality of Redondela, in Pontevedra. With an area of about 12 square kilometres, it is characterized for being a coastal area with irregular relief.

Cesantes has its own port, fish market and a fishermen's guild, the San Xoán guild. The fishing port has adequate and modern facilities that were recently built, and a restricted jetty area for sailing boats that do not have a folding luff.

Fishing is, as in many municipalities in Galicia, the main activity for its economy. In fact, the Fishermen's Guild of Cesantes has set up a tourist route where you can see how the fishermen catch the sardine, the choco or the shellfish work.

Redondela is a municipality in the province of Pontevedra that has been inhabited for ages. Not in vain, in Penide mountain or Mirallo and Ventosela mountain different remains of dolmens, petroglyphs and rock engravings have been found that prove it.