Narón () is a municipality 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 ...

in the

autonomous community The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Sp ...

of Galicia. It belongs to the

comarca A ''comarca'' (, , , ) is a traditional region or local administrative division found in Portugal, Spain, and some of their former colonies, like Brazil, Nicaragua, and Panama. The term is derived from the term ''marca'', meaning a "march, mark ...

of Ferrol. Geographically, the town is very close to the Atlantic Ocean. The city of Ferrol is 5 km away. The nearest airports are located in the cities 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

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 ...

. Narón has a train and bus connection to Ferrol as they form an urban continuum.

Climate

Due to its proximity to the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

, the

Oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

is predominant, with many rainy days, not having extreme oscillation in its weather conditions neither in winter nor in summer.

Entertainment

Narón has two cultural centres, one big theatre with more than 1000 seats and another smaller auditorium. Also there is a 12 screen cinema within the Centro Commercial Odeón, one of the two big shopping centres of the comarca (a new shopping centre opened in Ferrol in October 2013). The town also has 2 nightlife areas: Carretera de Castilla and A Gándara, near the shopping mall, with both places full of pubs, music and traditional bars, restaurants and inns.

Festivities

In the month of May,

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the Northern Hemisphere's March equinox, spring equinox and midsummer June solstice, solstice. Festivities ma ...

is celebrated on the 1st along with the

Galician Literature Day Galician Literature Day () is a public holiday observed in Galicia, Spain. It is a celebration of the Galician language and its literature which was inaugurated by the Royal Galician Academy (''Real Academia Galega'') in 1963. This celebration ...

, on the 17th. An '' Oenach'' is celebrated in August, remembering

Celt The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

ic origins. The Día de Narón is celebrated every year on the 23 November. Narón celebrates the National Day of Galicia on the 25 July with concerts and several parties at the main square in the town, the Galician Square. In addition to all the local fiestas, Narón also observes the national Spanish fiestas.

Parishes (''Parroquias'')

The municipality includes 13 parishes: * Castro * Doso
San Xiao de Narón (San Xiao)
* Pedroso * Sedes * San Mateo de Trasancos * O Val * Nosa Señora dos Desamparados - Piñeiros (Narón urban area) * San Martiño de Xuvia - O Couto (Narón urban area) * San Xosé Obreiro - Outo do Castiñeiro (Narón urban area) * Santa Icía - A Solaina (Narón urban area) * Santa Rita de Xuvia (Narón urban area) * Santiago Apóstolo - A Gándara (Narón urban area) However, six of them (Pinheiros, O Couto, A Gándara, Outo do Castiñeiro, Xuvia and A Solaina) belong to the city center and now they are known as neighbourghoods. There are a total of 195 localities, the most prominent being A Gándara, A Solaina and Piñeiros, each of which has a population higher than 6,000. Narón town hall is located at Outo do Castiñeiro (also known, in Spanish, as Alto del Castaño).

Education

Narón is home to four public Infant Schools, two Public Secondary High-Schools, six public Primary Schools and fourteen private schools.

Languages

Both Castilian and Gallego are spoken in this area although statistics on the use and comprehension of both is not known at present. Tourists and travellers arriving to this area will most probably notice that there isn't much information or official notices either in English or in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

; most information and leaflets provided will be in local Galician. School children are taught in the Galician language, although many speak Castilian as their first language.

Economy

The most important

economic sector One classical breakdown of economic activity distinguishes three sectors: * Primary: involves the retrieval and production of raw materials, such as corn, coal, wood or iron. Miners, farmers and fishermen are all workers in the primary sect ...

s are the tertiary and the secondary (services and industries) sectors, which employ 49.9% and 31.2% of the working population, respectively. Narón is a suitable place to build small industries because of its good potential for industrial development. The industrial estate, Río do Pozo, is being built and will become one of the largest

business park A business park or office park is a designated area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. These types of developments are often located in suburban areas where land and building costs are more affordable, and are typically ...

s in Galicia, Spain. A Gándara is the place where another important industrial estate is. MEGASA and POLIGAL, two of the most prominent enterprises of the Galician iron and steel subsectors, are present in Narón. There are also other enterprises in such diverse industries as

dairy A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese, and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building, or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also des ...

thermal insulation Thermal insulation is the reduction of heat transfer (i.e., the transfer of thermal energy between objects of differing temperature) between objects in thermal contact or in range of radiative influence. Thermal insulation can be achieved with s ...

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

, construction materials, foodstuffs and

distilling Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

. The industrial development of the borough, began in a few centuries ago, and consisted in different factories devoted to the leather tanning,

textile mill Textile manufacturing or textile engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful good ...

s and the use of water mills. Later, tile factories were stabilised in the region, together with

shipyards A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes more involved ...

and sawmills. Nowadays, and more recently, other industries flourished like traditional woodwork, stone, leather and

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porce ...

workshops which in some cases can still be found. The primary sector is the least important, comprising 5.7% of the working population. It produces

cereal A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, ...

potatoes The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

vegetables Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including flowers, fruits, ...

and

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

, and constitutes a complementary economic activity. Since 1900, Narón has experimented a continuous steady growth, which during the 1960s and the 1970s accelerate itself due to the flourishing of the naval industry of Ferrol and Fene and the economic expansion which

was experiencing during those years. Narón, absorbed during those years a substantial influx of migrant workers from the most rural areas of Ferrolterra, localities such as

San Sadurniño San Sadurniño is a municipality in the province of A Coruña in the autonomous community of Galicia in northwestern Spain. It belongs to the comarca of Ferrol. It is located in the valley of the Rio Grande de Xuvia. Sights include the ruins of ...

, Cedeira and Ortigueira to mention a few, including from areas of the interior, like Terra Chá in the province of Lugo. Often people came from other parts of

too, like people who were posted in the military sector to Ferrol, for example. This immigration rejuvenated the population structure and reinforced the development of different sectors like the

construction industry Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the ...

, due to the necessity of housing. Those challenges transformed the area into a rural borough to become a lightly industrialized one. The lack of urban planning in the first stages of development caused a high population density in some neighbourhoods, specially those near Ferrol and the industry, following the corridor of "Estrada de Castela" which is the main artery today. The lack of provision of many utilities in the new urban areas created a town with many challenges that were completely solved during the last years (such as the connections between different neighbourhoods, the High-Voltage lines were buried and new urban developments were built in empty areas, pointing out the large development made where the new Town Hall was built, near the "Estrada de Castela". Buildings in Narón are not generally very high; only between four or five floors but some new buildings are higher, such as "As Torres", near the Highway. After the oil crisis of 1973, that economic expansion was stopped by the decline of the Shipbuilding Sector in neighbouring Ferrol, having some restructuring plans during the 1980s and early 1990s, following the Spanish accession to

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. With the beginning of the 21st Century, Narón watched a new economy revival following the arrival of the motorway, the creation of large parks of wind mills in the Galicia, the completion of some business parks as Río do Pozo with big companies as Pull and Bear and

Lidl Lidl ( ) is a trademark, used by two Germany, German international discount supermarket, discount retailer chain store, chains that operates over 12,600 stores. The ''LD Stiftung'' operates the stores in Germany and the ''Lidl Stiftung & Co. K ...

, the Outer-Port just before the entrance of “A Ría” plus many other developments like bring cruises into Ferrolterra.

Socio-cultural and economic development

Because of the

Megalithic A megalith is a large Rock (geology), stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. More than 35,000 megalithic structures have been identified across Europe, ranging ...

remains of A Moura, San Mateo and O Val and the existence of hill-forts (''castros''), albeit in a pitiful condition, in Eiravedra, Pereiruga, Petouzal, Quintá, Revolta, San Mateo, Sequeiro, Vicás and Vilasuso, it has been established that this land has been inhabited since ancient times. In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, there were some small

monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which m ...

, but the most important were San Martiño de Xuvia and San Salvador de Pedroso, which were the centers of the economic, cultural and religious life of the Terra de Trasancos. An often-visited place is the Presa do Rei, located at the river Xubia. There are also two

water mill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production ...

s from the 18th-century, with important historic-cultural value. But the most representative monument in Naron is the Romanesque Church of O Couto, which is in the ancient monastery of San Martiño de Xuvia and dates from the 12th century. The church has a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

l layout (three

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

s and semicircular apses). Inside, there is the Gothic grave of Rodrigo Esquío. The

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

and the tower of the

façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

were added later, in the 18th century. It is a building of great architectural value and is notable because of the merging of different styles. Nowadays, Narón is working towards cultural enrichment. It might also be noted that the whole area has undergone a period of worrisome economic uncertainty due to the crisis in the naval building sector, the conflicts with European legislation, and competition from

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Naron Municipalities in the Province of A Coruña