With common municipal interests, the Mayor of Vila Nova de Cerveira, Rui Teixeira, and the mayor of Vilanova de Arousa, Gonzalo Durán met, on Friday, in that municipality of Pontevedra, to affirm the “will to move forward with future synergies in the areas of tourism and culture, with emphasis on the promotion of the Portuguese Way of Santiago” reveals the statement sent.
During the meeting, the mayors presented the potential of each territory and the respective municipal strategy. They found points of common interest that can “trigger a fruitful partnership, embodied in the development of joint projects, within the scope of POCTEP or other European funding programs”.
Vila Nova de Cerveira and Vilanova de Arousa are two towns in the northwest of the peninsula, with around 10 thousand inhabitants each, and which share the similar toponymy of ‘vilanova’, in addition to having two navigable rivers – the Minho River and the Arousa Ria – as one of the ex-libris of territorial experience.
The Caminhos de Santiago are one of the factors that unite both municipalities, complemented by the Camino Português, but also by the promotion of other unique variants that can be leveraged together.
Vila Nova de Cerveira has presented itself as a ‘village of paths’, being an obligatory passage on the Camino Português da Costa, and, more recently, supporting the certification of the Caminho da Nossa Senhora do Norte, which passes through Vila Nova de Cerveira entering in Galicia by Tomiño, before joining the Portuguese in Redondela.
In turn, Vilanova de Arousa has the experience of the Spiritual Variant, a route marked by being the only maritime-river Via Crucis in the world, and which consists of a set of 17 crosses that mark the route of the apostle’s body.
Another point in common between the ‘new towns’ of Cerveira and Arousa is the existence of two natural parks that serve as tourism-heritage enhancers. On the one hand, the Castelinho Leisure Park, in Vila Nova de Cerveira and, on the other hand, the Illas Atlánticas National Park, in Vilanova de Arousa, a marine park that hosts more than 200 species of plants and animals.
