What to see in Corcubión

Corcubion, land of calm and bravery

Cultural Heritage

Shipyard

Industrial heritage

In Corcubión, boats were often launched in past centuries. One of the shipyards that existed in our municipality was the one owned by the Compañía General de Carbones (General Coal Company), located on Quenxe’s beach, where some of the salting factories of the municipality were also located and whose remains can still be seen. One of the best known launches is the sailboat Julita. This 300-tonne boat was launched on the 27th of September 1920 as part of the Mercedes’ festivity programme, as the Compañía General de Carbones wanted to contribute to the splendour of the celebrations. It was built in the shipyards that this company had in Quenxe and the person in charge of this work was the master José Iglesias, known as Palletas. The godmother of this event was the daughter of the manager in Galicia of the Compañía de Carbones, who was also called Julia.

In addition to the sailboat Julita, other boats were built, such as the steamer Triton (used to transport the workers to the pontoons), the barges San José, Ameijenda, Pindo, etc.

But previously and on those same grounds (when the shipyard was not yet owned by the Compañía General de Carbones) there is evidence of the construction of other sailing ships. Some examples are the coasting lugger San Pablo (1865) or the schooner Camila in 1829 (later reconstructed with the wood and nails from the English ship “The Great Liverpool”, wrecked in Caneliñas - Cee). Almost 60 years later, Camila stopped sailing and its copper nails were used to build the sloop called Méndez Núñez. This sloop was owned by José González Cereijo, one of the pioneers in Galicia in the recovery and rescue of shipwrecks. This man had a warehouse on the A Viña’s beach that he used for trade and the deposit of the remains of the ships that he recovered or scrapped. He had a wooden dock for the service of his boats. González Cereijo had several boats, two of which were the aforementioned Méndez Núñez and the Argonauta. It was precisely in the place where José González Cereijo's warehouse was located where, later on, another of the shipyards that existed in Corcubión for the repair of boats was in operation until the end of the nineties. Today you can still see the remains of this shipyard on A Viña’s beach.

Also in 1888, a recreational yacht and lobster hatchery were launched. These boats were very common at that time for the transport of live lobsters, which were very abundant in Costa da Morte and were a very exported product, being Plácido Castro Rivas one of the entrepreneurs who benefited from this business.

Another of the shipyards was located in what was known as Casa de Lla, an old salting factory that had a fountain in the centre of its patio, the properties of its waters being considered very effective in combating many diseases. This property passed through several hands until, in the fifties, it was bought by Benigno Lago Estévez. After being inactive for several years, Lago reopened the house and built a shipyard attached to the old salting factory. In the seventies, the Casa de Lla was demolished due to the urbanization of the area where it was located, so today the remains of this property are not preserved.