A Coruña is a Spanish port on the Atlantic coast and is becoming a popular port of call for British cruise ships. It is a historic city that over time has maintained close links with its old fishing and commercial port and which boasts an interesting Romanesque collection of streets, squares and medieval churches.

For cruise ship passengers it has the advantage of an easy  short walk between the cruise ship terminal and the main centre of the city.

The peninsula on which the Old City stands also contains the Tower of Hercules, one of the symbols of the city…

…which we will visit later.

As always with the Solents we had a plan and knew the attractions that we wished to see during our time in A Coruña…

Cruise ships visiting A Coruña generally berth at the TransAtlantic Quay which  is an exclusive cruise ship berth with a new passenger terminal providing all the standard tourist services (both to passengers and crew).

The terminal is just around 5 minutes walk from the city’s centre and adjacent the Mendez Nunez Gardens….

where a certain statue holds a prominent position….

…and leads onto  Palacio Provincial Square….

with Palacio Provincial at its end….

Circling around  the Palacio there is a marina….

….and to the left of the above photograph can be seen the gap in the buildings that leads to the Plaza Di Maria Pita….

The Plaza de María Pita forms a large rectangle measuring more than 10,000 square metres. This central square  is dedicated to the heroine María Pita with a  bronze statue –  the work of Xosé Castiñeiras.

It stands 9.31 m high, with the pedestal accounting for 5.56 m; the sculpture itself, 3.3 m; and the platform, 0.45 m. It weighs 30 tonnes. At the foot of the statue, there is a censer (flame) which is only extinguished from 03.00 until 07.00.

On one side is the City Hall, while the other three sides are lined with arcaded buildings whose arches house various cafés and restaurants beneath.

It was designed in the mid-19th century and is the location of the City Hall….

Leaving the Plaza de María Pita and returning back to the marina,  we now followed the promenade as far as the Castelo de Santo Antón….

This 12th century fortress keeps watch over the port and the Old Town of A Coruña. Today it houses a  Historical and Archaeological Museum….

…and is well worth a visit.

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The next place of historical interest is ‘The San Miguel Gate’ (Saint Michael): a short distance from San Anton Castle,  the position of which can be seen in the above photograph top right set in the old city wall just below the old white ‘Military Hospital’….

The gate has an interesting history. It was  originally set into the walls in 1595 giving access via 21 steps to the seashore and Castelo de Santo Antón.  Worthy of note are the three coats of arms on the gate’s lintel: that of the crown, of the Kingdom of Galicia and that of Diago de las Marinas, who was in charge of initiating the works….

Continuing on and following the old city wall around to the left one comes across the entrance to the Old Military Hospital….

…and continuing further along the  Pr. Parrote road is the Museum of Military History….

Once past we Military Museum we kept right along the Rua Maestranza ….

….before dropping right onto the Maritime Promenade and continuing till we sited the Tower of Hercules….

(that was a approximately a 50 minute walk from the Military Museum with a generous coffee stop on the way)

Having made the journey there was no way we were going to miss climbing the tower and so we purchased tickets at the booth at the base of the tower rampart…

…before commencing our ascent of the rampart….

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To the left hand side of the rampart is a park area with many paths and some interesting sculptures and monuments….

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A particular one, Hydra of Lerna…

…was created in 1998 and is the work of Fidel Goás Mendes. It commemorates one of the labours of Hercules. In payment for having committed horrendous crimes, the Oracle of Delphi demanded that the hero enter the service of King Eurystheus, who commanded him to complete twelve labours. The first and most well-known was to slay the lion of Nemea, and the second, the Hydra of Lerna, a ruthless sea monster whose multiple heads could regenerate and reproduce if severed. With the help of his nephew Yolaos, Hercules was able to defeat the monster and used its blood as poison for his arrows.

Another, the Ara Solis, 1994….

…has a rather interesting story. A symbol of transit, the door is always the passage between life and death, light and darkness, ignorance and wisdom. But in this case it takes on a broader significance, as it refers to the never proven existence of an altar dedicated to the sun in A Coruña’s Finisterre.

At the top of the rampart are steps leading to the Tower entrance…

The Tower of Hercules is the only fully preserved Roman lighthouse that is still used for maritime signaling, hence it is testimony to the elaborate system of navigation in antiquity and it provides an understanding of the Atlantic sea route in Western Europe.

Once inside, visitors are guided via well lit boardwalks through the Roman foundations uncovered  during excavations conducted in the 1990s….

…where visitors can view Latin inscriptions on the stones, dating back to the 1st Century….

It is the only lighthouse of Greco-Roman antiquity to have retained a measure of structural integrity and functional continuity.

As one climbs the 234 steps through the tower’s inner core, chambers  and  three distinct floors …

…numerous information boards detail the tower’s historical progress….

…eventually arriving at the Rotunda…..

….before heading out onto the 360° panoramic balcony….

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…to take in the surrounding vistas, including here the Rosa Dos Ventos  (Compass Rose)…

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.. the Aquarium Finisterre…

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For this particular visit we were sailing on Celebrity Silhouette and from the tower balcony we could pick out  the ship….

Further across the bay and on the left can be seen the waterfront the Obelisco Millennium…

….and to its right, the Elevator Monte San Pedro…..

Constructed in 2007, this panoramic cliff railway (not strictly a funicular) provides a unique way of getting from the coast to the top of San Pedro Mountain.

At the top, you will find a park, as well as the remnants of the Spanish army’s occupation of the region during the Spanish Civil War. This includes some massive coastal guns, as well as smaller artillery pieces.

Our visit to the Tower of Hercules over we strolled through the park in the direction the Aquarium before picking up the main road and heading back into the city along the promenade that borders the Playa del Orzán….

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…and eventually cutting through the Plaza Africano,  past the Obelisk Clock on Rua Canton Grande….

…before crossing back into the Mendez Nunez Gardens where our visit had started.

That concludes this review of ‘One way to do La Coruna’. My photograph sequence times indicate that we concluded the whole walk in 4 hours and 3 minutes. How remiss of me that on this visit I didn’t obtain a download from my good lady’s fitbit just to see how much ground we had covered.

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It is common throughout the travel industry for travel journalists and many cruise bloggers to be provided with complimentary cruises for the purpose of their reviews.

Solent Richard has no ‘conflict of interest’ as he is not an accredited journalist, he pays for his cruises, and is happy to confirm that all his reviews are his own given without fear or favour.