Any time of the year is good to go to San Andrés de Teixido, but on November 30th (and the previous days) it is one of the most marked dates because it is the day on which the festival of the patron of the place is celebrated. There are several rites that will have to be fulfilled by those who approach there: take a stone along the way to deposit it in a “milladoiro” (rock mounds deposited by pilgrims); kiss the small image of the saint inside the sanctuary, visit the miraculous fountain or make the bouquet of St. Andrew. Another of the rites of the place was related to the famous “Herba de Namorar” (weed to fall in love), although today it has been affected because it is an endangered species that should not be torn off.

The pilgrimage to San Andrés began at least in the 12th century, but its importance as a place of worship starts much earlier, which allows us to see how, as with other celebrations, millenary customs and superstitions are hidden under the Christian culture. Already in the time of the Celts, these places enthralled the inhabitants of the area, which made them the scene of various rituals related to the transit of earthly life to the beyond through the seas. Local tradition relates these rites directly to the Holy Company to indicate that the souls in pain that make up this spooky procession also go to San Andrés de Teixido looking for the gateway to the next life. Hence the famous expression “A San Andrés de Teixido vai de morto quen non foi de vivo” (To San Andrés goes live who didn’t go dead).

The transition from the Celtic tradition to Christianity did not subtract mysticism from the place and even gave rise to more mythical tales. One of them tells that the place is dedicated to San Andrés because the saint himself stepped on those lands. According to this legend, the saint arrived in a ship that was shipwrecked and his remains became a rock, known as the Barca de San Andrés (Saint Andrew’s boat) for its resemblance to an inverted hull. Another one of these stories places Jesus Christ and Saint Peter in Teixido and tells that the first ordered Saint Andrew to remain in the place assuring him that he would never miss the visits of people arriving from many other places.

Today, the current sanctuary, which began to be built in the fourteenth century and received several subsequent reforms, is indeed the goal of a multitude of people who come there to demonstrate their fervor, to continue the tradition, to enjoy a enthralling landscape and, also, not to have to return in the next life.

The most emblematic monument of the town has been both witness and protagonist of its history. Every year, in September, a massive pilgrimage that attracts thousands of people from all over Galicia is celebrated to pay tribute to the Virgin. The temple was rebuilt several times. The most recent, after the fire that suffered on Christmas Day 2013.

The place is also the destination of many pilgrims who, after arriving in Compostela and visiting the tomb of Santiago, decide to extend their route to Muxía to visit another of the spaces closely linked to the Jacobean tradition. The legend says, also explaining the name of the sanctuary, that was built in the place where the Virgin arrived in a stone boat to infuse encouragement to the Apostle.

That is why it is not surprising that the stones surrounding the temple are full of symbolism. The most famous is the Abalar, a huge granite mass of 70 tons that tradition identifies with the hull of the Virgin’s boat. Due to its shape and location, it makes a swinging movement when several people climb to its extremes. This unique feature has caused the astonishment of visitors for centuries, although in recent years it has only been able to swing intermittently because of a fracture. According to tradition, the stone was the scene of ancient rites related to fertility.

Other stones of the sanctuary with their own name are the Pedra do Temón, which would be the helm of the Virgin’s boat; the one of Os Namorados (the lovers) and the one of Os Cadrís, whose shape reminds us of a kidney and for that reason healing properties are attributed to it if the rite of going under it is fulfilled nine times.

In the vicinity of the sanctuary you can also see other stones full of symbolism, which form A Ferida. But in this case it was not nature that shaped them, but the hand of man. This is a large format work by the sculptor Alberto Bañuelos-Fournier as a tribute to the volunteers who fought against the black tide of the Prestige and as a remembrance of that catastrophe.

The Sala do Perello completes this petrous travel through the history and legends of Muxía. Not far from the sanctuary several large stones form a kind of room that would have had some odd inhabitant.