The charm of A Proba de Navia
A village of cinema in the heart of Ancares
A Proba has two fundamental patrimonial elements, which show the importance of this nucleus in medieval times with the medieval bridge and the Altamira castle.
The first documentary mention of the castle is the donation made by Rodrigo Gutiérrez to his wife in 1037. The Irmandiña revolt in 1467 destroyed the castle that the counts later rebuilt in its polygonal plan, erected on a rocky massif that rises above the population center, there are still remains of the circular defensive towers and part of the wall with its parapet. The castle was built inside, with a slate masonry factory and it was accessed by a semicircular arched door.
In the last century, the Asturian priest Manuel López Ernesto, then parish priest in Navia, acquired the castle. He reformed it almost completely and changed its appearance to make seven houses inside for his heirs. He had to use the old palleira that he rebuilt with concrete blocks, which were left in the air and which is still in that state, and in it he fitted out another house. What is preserved today, is very distorted.
Next to the castle is the so-called "Ponte Vella" or medieval bridge; a bridge with a single pointed arch and a cambered slate roadway, which popular tradition considers to be Roman although the current bridge is of medieval origin. The natural beauty of the natural environment (the Navia River) is added to the artistic ensemble.
A Proba has a river beach with crystal clear waters of the Vanzado and other smaller ones, called "El pozo de la madre", which have changing rooms with showers and public toilets and also has as an incentive river fishing. All of it has a lawn and a children's playground, as well as areas with tables and grills for lunch or dinner on site. In front of the park is the "Muíño do Médico" and the dam to provide it with water. Next to the dam runs the "Camiño de Forcois", a beautiful path that formerly served the many orchards on this side of the river.
From this village you can start 2 hiking trails that allow us to know the territory: "Ruta da Retorta", with a length of 5 km and medium difficulty and "Ruta de Penedo da Forca", route is about 3.2 km long and starts in the field of the Fair of A Proba de Navia and has a duration of an hour and a half. This itinerary takes us to a beautiful landscape of oak and chestnut trees.
Navia de Suarna also has an enormous potential as a cycling capital par excellence, not only in Galicia, but nationally. From A Proba we can start cycling the routes "Encadenado Sierra Morela Pandozarco", "Valles y Campas de Ancares", "Ríos Ibias y Navia", "Vuelta Ancares y Cebreiro" and "Desafío Pelliceira Pandozarco".
"O que arde", the third film by Oliver Laxe, awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and with 2 Goyas after 4 nominations, presented this territory to the world before the pandemic arrived. The director from Navia de Suarna chose his land as the backdrop for this elegy to nature and this call for help in the face of the abandonment of the countryside, "O que arde shows the last vestiges of a world that was abandoned by the pandemic. ltimos vestiges of a disappearing world, is a requiem to rural Galicia, to rural Spain," said Oliver Laxe, who continued: "Galicia and Os Ancares are made of contrasts: they are sweet and harsh, rainy and luminous. It is above all a mysterious, paradoxical, contradictory land? I wanted to capture its beauty, an intense and unpredictable beauty that knows no measure".
- Discovering Lugo: The Proba de Navia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lUDDqOqEqE
- A Proba de Navia in 360º
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f40iXhA5e00&list=PLImDsDwr7TfKt1yeOX-7UVzVQM05_GgEk&index=8
- Ruta da Retorta
https://concellonaviadesuarna.es/es/retorta
- Discovering Lugo: Ruta da Retorta, Navia de Suarna
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5rdG7NqWhA
- Penedo da Forca Route
https://concellonaviadesuarna.es/es/penedo-da-forca
- Cycling routes from A Proba de Navia
https://montanadelugociclista.es/categoria/rutas/rutas-desde-navia/
- Documentary RB Os Ancares Lucenses - What burns (Oliver Laxe)