The Rande Strait. The Rande Castle. The Corbeiro Fortress

About this heritage

The Rande Castle is right below the pillars of the Rande Bridge and made up of a military fort remains dated back to the sixteenth century.

Some parts of the fort-wall remains reach up to five meters high. Some structures covered by undergrowth and brushes were left uncovered with the extension work of the Rande Bridge. This structure was essential during the Battle of Rande, as it had a chain that crossed to the other end of the estuary, in Cabo Corbeiro in Domaio, where it was the artillery to close the passage of enemy ships.

During the Battle of Rande, the Anglo-Dutch fleet attacked the Vigo estuary seeking the New World treasures carried in the holds of the Spanish and French galleons.

The Spaniards barely had a month to gather and train men, who did not belong to the military, for the offensive preparation. Therefore, the defense of the fort consisted of approximately 350 soldiers, mostly sailors and humble men, who dug in intending to stop more than 150 ships. Besides, the captain-general of Galicia, Prince Barbazon, deployed his land troops in the batteries of the bay, a total of eight hundred men in the Rande bastion. Almost a thousand soldiers barricaded themselves in Vigo, half in "El Castro" district, and the other half reinforced the fort of Saint Sebastian, currently, Vigo's City Hall.

In the early morning of October 23, 1702, the English sailors tried cutting the chain that stretched between Rande and Corbeiras fortresses at Domaio. They began to cannonade the forts as the Duke of Ormond disembarked with four thousand infantry and destroyed the defenders in a little more than an hour. Soon after, they took command of the forts and fired on the French-Spanish fleet.

The fortress was severely damaged and left in ruins. Later, in the 20th century, some of its stones were used to build a mineral loading bay that participated in the export of tungsten in Nazi Germany.

To learn more

The Rande Bridge is a construction that crosses the Vigo estuary, avoiding a detour of more than fifty kilometers along the entire estuary. It belongs to the Atlantic Highway linking A Coruña and Vigo. Besides, this platform allows a fluid communication between the inhabitants of Vigo and the O Morrazo area, who commute to work, shop, or spend their leisure time. The construction of the bridge made both banks more dynamic, reducing the time spent on journeys. Another option to cross the estuary is the maritime transport, departing from the Vigo maritime station and commonly used by thousands of people.

Designed by Florencio Del Pozo, Fabrizio de Miranda, and Alfreso Passaro, this Bridge was completed in 1977. At the time, it was the second bridge in the world with more light, and in 1979, it won the European Prize for Outstanding Metal Construction.

It length is 1,558 meters and consists of a central cable-stayed bridge and two access viaducts, formed by two continuous box girders, one for each shoe, made of pre-stressed concrete. The total length of the viaduct is 863 meters.

The support columns are 148 meters high above the seabed. It consists of a metal deck with a total width of 23.46 meters, which allows double circulation in each direction and is at an elevation of 50 meters above sea level.

The fact that it is suspended from straight cables anchored on the edges of its board and the heads of the central piers, gives this bridge attractive slenderness and lightness.

On December 30, 2017, the bridge was reopened after its expansion, which had begun in mid-2015. The idea for the bridge is to support the traffic of approximately 100,000 vehicles per day.

To know it better

Redondela County in the Pontevedra province has been inhabited since ancient times, proven by findings of various remains of dolmens, petroglyphs, and rock engravings on Penide Mount, Mirallo Mount, and Ventosela.

Near Redondela, the Rande Bridge is linking the Redondela and Moaña counties, where long ago, the so-called "Battle of Rande" occurred. On October 23, 1702, this significant naval battle took place in the Rande Strait, between Besta Point and Rande Point in the widest section of the Vigo Estuary.

In Redondela, on the same bridge, one can find Rande Castle remains, a fortress from the XVII century, construction that served to protect the city of Vigo during the English and Portuguese wars.