Vigo

People lived on the slopes of O Castro, the hill above today's centre, long before the Romans, and Vigo's urban area is built over both that hillfort and a Roman settlement; the name is usually traced to the Latin vicus, a small village. Through the early Middle Ages it was a minor place in the territory of Tui, raided by Vikings, and it was not counted a real town until around the 15th century. Francis Drake raided it in 1585 and again in 1589, when he burned many buildings, and after later threats walls and the forts of San Sebastián and O Castro were built in the mid-17th century.

In 1702 the Battle of Vigo Bay saw an English and Dutch fleet attack a Spanish treasure fleet and its French escort, the episode Jules Verne used to fund Captain Nemo's Nautilus. In 1719 British forces occupied the town for ten days. During the Peninsular War the townspeople expelled the French garrison on 28 March 1809, an event still celebrated as the Reconquista. Pontevedra became the provincial capital in 1833, but Vigo kept growing: in 1863 a Vigo printer published Rosalía de Castro's Cantares gallegos, and in 1881 the railway to Ourense opened.

The 20th century brought rapid growth. Canning families, nicknamed the sardinocracia, built the grand stone apartment blocks of the centre, the neighbouring municipalities of Bouzas and Lavadores were absorbed in 1904 and 1941, a free trade zone was granted in 1947, and a car plant, now run by Stellantis, opened in 1958. After Franco's death the city's bands led the 1980s movida viguesa.

Vigo is a working city first, and its culture reflects the port. The film Mondays in the Sun portrayed men who have lost their work at the port, and the Faro de Vigo is the oldest newspaper still published in Spain. In the 1980s punk and new wave bands such as Siniestro Total, Golpes Bajos and Os Resentidos made the movida viguesa the Galician answer to Madrid's movida. The city's nickname, cidade olívica, comes from an olive tree said to have survived a royal order to cut down Galicia's olive trees; it appears on the city seal, and a descendant still grows in the centre.

Vigo is the least Galician-speaking city in Galicia: in 2013 just over half its people spoke only Spanish, though Galician is official. Galician publishing is strong, with the houses Galaxia and Xerais based here. Football means RC Celta de Vigo, which plays in the top division at Balaídos, and the ría makes sailing popular, with the Real Club Náutico, founded in 1906, and the Liceo Marítimo de Bouzas running regattas through the year.

Festivals mix history and the calendar. The Reconquista commemorates the events of 1809, the Entroido carnival has its own masked figure, the Merdeiro, and in recent years the city's promotion of elaborate Christmas lights, with big wheels, ice rinks and markets, has made the city a winter destination.

The municipality had about 296,000 people in 2024, about 201,000 of them in the core city, and the wider metropolitan area about 546,000 — the 14th largest in Spain. About 14 per cent of residents were born abroad, Venezuelans the largest group, followed by Colombians, Argentinians and Brazilians. The municipality reaches far beyond the centre into rural parishes and includes the Cíes Islands.

Fishing and industry set the rhythm. Vigo is the home port of large fishing companies such as Pescanova and the centre of Galicia's canned and processed fish industry, with more than 660 fishing vessels registered in its port; the sector supports more than 32,000 direct and indirect jobs. The Stellantis car plant is one of the region's largest employers, shipyards line the shore at Bouzas, Coia and Teis, and the port is Spain's leader for granite traffic. The European Fisheries Control Agency is based here, and the University of Vigo, founded in 1990, has its main campus on a hillside at Zamáns.

Local politics has been dominated since 2007 by the Socialist mayor Abel Caballero, who has won five mandates in a row. Many residents commute from the towns around the ría, and summer weekends empty the city onto the beaches and the islands.

Vigo cooks from the Galician coastal repertoire. Among its signature dishes are arroz con bogavante, rice with lobster; chocos en su tinta, cuttlefish in their own ink; empanada de zamburiñas, a pie filled with small scallops; pulpo a la gallega, octopus boiled and dressed with olive oil, paprika and coarse salt; rape a la gallega, monkfish; and grilled sardines. Shellfish is the product visitors most prize, and mussels and zamburiñas are farmed on the bateas, rafts moored across the ría.

Meat matters too: churrasco, grilled meat, is one of the city's representative dishes. Sweets follow Galician tradition, with filloas, thin crêpes, leche frita, fried milk custard, and cheesecake; carnival brings filloas and orejas. The Casco Vello, around Rúa dos Cesteiros and Rúa Pescadería, holds many of the city's taverns, and municipal markets in Berbés, Bouzas, Calvario and Teis sell the catch.

Galician wines such as Albariño and Ribeiro accompany the seafood. Queimada, a punch of Galician orujo made with sugar, lemon or orange peel and coffee beans, is set alight while a spell is recited over it.