Villagarcia--Site of King Alfonso’s new palace--Pontevedra--A magnificent stone bridge--The fishermen’s guild--The fishermen’s church--The façade--The interior--The architect of Santa Maria la Grande--Morales--Santo Domingo--Beautiful ruins--A romantic museum--Sepulchral effigies--Ambassadors to Tamerlane--Roman milestones--Escutcheons--The contents of the museum--Iberian, Celtic, and Sueve antiquities--Stonemasons’ marks--The founder of the Pontevedra Archæological Society--The Conventual Church of San Francisco--The legendary Chariño--Museum in the Municipal Buildings--Mediæval keys--The archives of Pontevedra--Drive to Marin--English Protestant missionaries--The river Lerez--Santa Clara--Drive to the village of Combarro--Pedro Sarmiento--The house in which he was born--_Las Sarmientas_--Heavy taxes--San Juan de Poyo--Santa Tramunda--The Jewish quarter--Mansion of the Sotomayor family--The Castillo de Mos--A mediæval castle--A beautiful drive--Passing through a battlefield--Vines trained over granite--Entering the castle grounds--The little theatre--The old keep--Gothic staircase--Dungeons--The chapel--The parapet--The turret--The reception rooms--An authoress--Three periods of architecture--Very old chestnut trees--Prehistoric rock drawings--Cup marks--Half an hour’s walk from Pontevedra We spent another week in Santiago after our return from Noya, and then proceeded by train to Pontevedra, the chief town of the province of that name.[247] Two of the stations we passed on the way were Padron and Villagarcia. It was at Villagarcia that a British fleet lay for several weeks in the spring of 1907, as I found to my cost, for the officers had been before me and had bought up all the best photographs available in several of the neighbouring towns. Villagarcia is beautifully situated on the eastern bank of the Ria de Arosa, nineteen kilometres from the town of Pontevedra, and is called _la Perla de Arosa_ (the Pearl of Arosa). It has a population of about seven thousand. The sea-bathing here is excellent, and there are delightful walks in the vicinity; but the fact that King Alfonso has selected it as the site of his new summer palace is perhaps the best proof we can give of its healthful beauty and charm. Pontevedra, surrounded by hills on three sides, is situated on a small peninsular formed by the rivers Lerez, Alba, and Tomeya, just before they empty themselves into the sea. During the Middle Ages the town was surrounded by a rampart with bastions and castellated towers at regular intervals. A little to the north on the road to Santiago there is a magnificent stone bridge over the river Lerez, with twelve arches; it was built upon the site of an older bridge in 1765, and is also called _Puente del Burgo_. There are many old houses in the town, with the escutcheons of influential families still upon their walls.