Cambre is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the

Province of A Coruña The province of A Coruña ( ; ; historical ) is the northwesternmost province of Spain, and one of the four provinces which constitute the autonomous community of Galicia. This province is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and north ...

, in the autonomous community of Galicia in northwestern

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It is located 12 km from the capital city of

A Coruña A Coruña (; ; also informally called just Coruña; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality in Galicia, Spain. It is Galicia's second largest city, behind Vigo. The city is the provincial capital of the province ...

and ten minutes away from the city's airport, Alvedro. According to the 2010 census, the municipality of Cambre includes 23,621 inhabitants spread over its 12 parishes, which occupy 41 square kilometres. The parishes are those of O Temple, Cambre, Sigrás, Anceis, San Lorenzo, Cela, Andeiro, Santa María de Vigo, Bribes, Brexo-Lema,

Cecebre Cambre is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in the A Coruña (province), Province of A Coruña, in the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia in northwestern Spain. It is located 12 km from the capital city of A Coruña and te ...

and Pravio. It shares municipal boundaries with the neighbouring municipalities of Culleredo, Carral and Oleiros. The town of Cambre has many sites of interest. Among them are: The Church of Our Lady Mary of Cambre (Spanish: ''Iglesia de Santa María de Cambre'', Galician: ''Igrexa de Santa María de Cambre''), built around the 12th century; an archaeological museum with a permanent exhibition of the remains of a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

bathroom and

latrine A latrine is a toilet or an even simpler facility that is used as a toilet within a sanitation system. For example, it can be a communal trench in the earth in a camp to be used as emergency sanitation, a hole in the ground ( pit latrine), or ...

; and the house of Galician writer

Wenceslao Fernández Flórez Wenceslao Fernández Flórez (1885 in A Coruña, Galicia (Spain), Galicia – 29 April 1964 in Madrid) was a popular Galician journalist and novelist of the early 20th century. Throughout his career, he retained an intense fondness for the ...

(1885–1964). The town is located on the Way of St. James (''Camino de Santiago''), though on the English Way (Camino inglés), used mainly by pilgrims coming from England and Ireland via ship to

or Ferrol, and from there on foot to

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela, simply Santiago, or Compostela, in the province of Province of A Coruña, A Coruña, is the capital of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city ...

Name

Cambre's name is considered to derive from "Calambre" or "Calamber", according to different sources. It is first mentioned during the construction of the Church of Santa María (12th century). The name was very possibly given to the area by

Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...

, a Christian order created in the aftermath of the First Crusade of 1096. The Order ceased to exist two centuries later, but after they had built a fortress near the town's centre which has since ceased to exist. One of Cambre's parishes is called Temple in their honour. However, there are other theories which give a different origin to Cambre's name. Carré Aldao suggests its name derives from "Cambria", which sounds relatively similar to

Cymru () is the Welsh language, Welsh-language name for Wales, a country of the United Kingdom, on the island of Great Britain. It, and the Welsh word referring to the Welsh people, are descended from the Common Brittonic, Brythonic word ''combr ...

(

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

). If this were true, it might suggest an early invasion of the region by Welsh

vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

several centuries ago, though it may well be a semilegendary hypothesis derived from a romantic view of history to link the Celtic people with those of Galicia. Nevertheless, this theory might be supported by the fact that when the Romans arrived to the Northwestern region of the Iberian Peninsula (present day Galicia and Northern Portugal), they named the area Galicia, as they recognized the ethnic group that populated the region as different from the rest of the peninsula. The Latin derived terms Galicia or ''Galegos'', derive from ''Gales'', which in the majority of languages evolved from Latin translates to

History

The area of Cambre was already inhabited by members of the

Castro culture Castro culture (, , , , meaning "culture of the hillforts") is the archaeological term for the material culture of the northwestern regions of the Iberian Peninsula (present-day northern and central Portugal together with the Spanish regions of ...

, as indicated by the presence of several '' castros''. However, Cambre's castros are not very well preserved and show but certain parts of these ancient constructions, such as defensive walls and pits. The Castro of Sigrás is the most impressive. Roman remains throughout the area imply Cambre was located on the (

Roman road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

) or ''via'' that connected Pharum (present day

) with Brigantium ( Betanzos). Following the collapse of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

and repeated invasions from barbarian tribes from the north, the area came under

Suebi file:1st century Germani.png, 300px, The approximate positions of some Germanic peoples reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 1st century. Suebian peoples in red, and other Irminones in purple. The Suebi (also spelled Suavi, Suevi or Suebians ...

protection. However, Roman culture still prevailed, and Suebi influence is only present today in a few names of towns and parishes. Shortly thereafter, the coastal areas of the province suffered major attacks from the

Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; ; ) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and locals of West Francia. The Norse settlements in West Franc ...

and later by conquering Muslims from the south who sacked the growing town. Cambre's splendour was triggered off thanks to the intervention of Knights Templar around the 12th century. One of Cambre's parishes called El Temple has a Romanic church dating from this period and a 14th-century bridge, which suggest great economic and social development in the area. Following the devastating invasions and battles which took place in nearby A Coruña, most of the population moved inland, along the estuary of the River Mero, to a small village called "Burga do Faro" (today O Burgo). Cambre's splendour developed thanks to the aide of three Kings closely linked with Galicia, namely Alfonso VII, Ferdinand II and Alfonso IX, all of them educated by members of the Galician nobility. It was thanks to these three monarchs that a great number of churches were erected in the region and also several bridges throughout the area were built in a short span of time. In the following centuries Cambre's fortune was similar to most Galician towns. Galicia was merged into the

Crown of Castile The Crown of Castile was a medieval polity in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and, some decades later, the parliaments of the kingdoms of Kingdom of Castile, Castile and Kingd ...

and only saw a revival of its culture during the 19th century. This cultural development was frozen during the dictatorship of General

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces i ...

, but in recent years has been visited by millions of tourists, mostly visiting

Pazos

Among Cambre's beauties, one can count its Pazos (country estates of the ancient nobility). Among them, those of San Xiao de Cela, San Paio de Brexo, San Martiño de Andeiro or San Xoán de Pravio are the most impressive.

Zones of interest

* Cambre Roman Villa, now converted into a small archaeological museum.

References

External links