Life in Spain’s most liveable city
A shopkeeper was once asked if the pedestrianisation of Pontevedra’s historic centre would affect business. “Well, I’ve never had a car come in to buy a book,” he said. A little over twenty years later, the plan to put its people before vehicles has propelled Pontevedra — 30 kilometres north of Vigo — to case study status. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo described the project as “visionary.”
41 million people squeeze into 30% of Spain’s territory. Spaniards are good at co-existing — they’ve no other choice. Home to some 85,000 inhabitants, Pontevedra is no different. The inner city is where we all live. And the living is safe and clean and easy.
“It’s the biggest village in the world,” says Bárbara García, owner of Bar El Toro. Even the weary-limbed pilgrims traipsing through its narrow streets on the home straight to Santiago de Compostela sense that there’s something different about the place.
Battling the elements and terrain along the Portuguese Camino route, peregrinos must earn their cold glass of local Albariño by negotiating one last obstacle: children. A gauntlet of footballs and scooters and underage drivers in remote control cars. Pontevedra is urban living with…
