Skip to content
Linguas Tecidas
GL ES EN

Blog

Moving to Monforte de Lemos: a practical guide

Monforte de Lemos is a town of about 18,000 people in the south of Lugo province, in the middle of the Ribeira Sacra. Our group mixes people from here and people from all over, so this is the guide we’d give a friend who has just arrived, or is thinking about it.

First step: the padrón

Register on the padrón, the town’s list of residents, at the Concello. You’ll need it for healthcare and for most other paperwork, so it’s worth doing early. Take your passport or ID card and your rental contract, or a signed authorization from the owner. You do it in person at the Registro General, on the ground floor of the Concello, during opening hours. The details are on the Concello’s padrón page.

Healthcare

Public healthcare runs through SERGAS, the Galician health service. In Monforte there’s a health center on Rúa Doutor Casares, where you’ll have your family doctor, and the Hospital Comarcal de Monforte.

Getting around

Monforte grew up as a railway town, and it’s still a junction. Trains run to Lugo, Ourense, Vigo, A Coruña, Ponferrada and Madrid, and there’s one to Barcelona, but most are slow regional services. Right now some of them are replaced by buses because of work on the line, so check before you travel. Tickets are on Renfe.

The town is walkable, but a bike or a car makes life a lot easier, and for the villages and the canyons you’ll want one or the other.

Finding a place to live

To be honest, housing is hard to find. Look on Idealista, visit the estate agents (inmobiliarias) in town, and ask around, because plenty of rentals never get advertised. Ask in our WhatsApp group too; someone may have heard of something.

Learning Galician (and Spanish)

You’ll hear Galician all around Monforte, and people really appreciate it when you try.

Markets and food shopping

  • The Plaza de Abastos on Rúa Bailén has fish, meat, fruit and a café, and it’s open every morning from 9:00 to 14:30. On some weekends it hosts themed markets.
  • The monthly fair fills the Campo da Feira on the 6th and 24th of every month, pulpeiras cooking octopus included. More on the Concello’s markets page.

Coffee, food and wine

  • The places that host our sessions are a good start: Cervecería Mulligans, the Ateneo Casino and Mon: Come y Sueña.
  • Try the pulpo at the fair.
  • Monforte is the capital of the Terra de Lemos and sits in the Ribeira Sacra wine region, so the local red is never far away.
  • Ask at a session for favorites. Everyone has one.

Work, wellbeing and community

  • Rizoma is a community-run coworking space on Avenida de Galicia: €50 a month or €10 a day, and your first day is free. It hosts some of our sessions, and Lúcia gives meditation classes there.
  • Yoga with Maysie at Tanquián, an eco-finca in Pantón, just outside Monforte. Ask us for details.
  • Sen Mercar is a local buy-nothing WhatsApp group where people give away and ask for things. Ask us and we’ll point you to it.
  • Linguas Tecidas meets every week. It’s the easiest way we know to meet people here.

Getting outside

  • The Cabe river runs through town, with a riverside walk on both banks. From mid-June to mid-September you can rent boats at the Parque dos Condes, and a path follows the river out toward the parish of Piñeira.
  • The Ribeira Sacra starts at your door: the Sil and Miño canyons, terraced vineyards and Romanesque churches. See the Ribeira Sacra tourism site for ideas.
  • The Terra de Lemos is Monforte plus Bóveda, Pantón, A Pobra do Brollón, O Saviñao and Sober. Each is worth a day out.

What to see in town

  • The Torre da Homenaxe, at the highest point of town, was once part of the San Vicente castle: 30 meters tall, with a small museum inside and a view across the whole Lemos valley.
  • The Colexio de Nosa Señora da Antiga, whose size and lines recall El Escorial. Its museum has paintings by El Greco and Andrea del Sarto.
  • The Museo do Ferrocarril de Galicia, the railway museum, in the old locomotive roundhouse by the station, with a big collection of historic carriages.
  • The old town, best explored on foot. The town’s tourism site has routes and opening times.

Through the year

  • The medieval fair at Easter, when the old town fills with stalls, performers and people in costume.
  • The Festas dos Chaos, for San Xoán on 24 June.
  • The Ribeira Sacra wine festival on the first or second weekend of July, on the Paseo do Malecón by the Cabe.

The Concello’s events page has the full calendar.

Come and say hello

Moving somewhere new is easier with a few familiar faces. Check the next sessions or join the WhatsApp group, and come along. It’s free, and all levels are welcome.

← Blog