The Island of Toralla, Vigo

The island of Toralla is a small island located in the Ría de Vigo, separated from the mainland by an approximate distance of 500 meters. It belongs to the municipality of Vigo and is close to the parishes of Corujo and Oia.

It has an area of ​​approximately 45,000 m2 of private property and 24,400 m2 of public domain land transferred in concession to the University of Vigo.

It has two small beaches at the end of the bridge that joins it to the ground, one on each side of the footboard and just at the entrance of the island.
At half tide they have a width of approximately 20 meters, and lengths of 80 and 120m respectively.

Opposite the island and at the beginning of the bridge is on the left of one of the most beautiful beaches of the Ría de Vigo, the beach of O Bao and on the right the Parque-Bosque de Toralla (Finca de Mirambell) where under the University of Vigo, a Roman villa was museumized, exposed to the public and of enormous interest so that together with others
of 100 archaeological sites make known the importance of the city of Vigo in Roman times.

The entire south of the Vigo estuary was from the beginning of historic events an exceptional place as evidenced by the large number of archaeological sites whose pieces are preserved in different museums, and hence, also, their valuable petroglyphs studied by eminent scholars and their forts, located in the hills near the sea where the first population groups developed.

One of them was the island Toralla, an important castro with an altitude of 18 meters and a crown of 7 meters of East-West axis and 30 m. of North-South axis. It was surrounded by a wall 2-3 meters thick and 1 m. High. In the circular dwellings, excavated in various campaigns, samples of indigenous pottery and amphoras were found.

It is necessary to think that at that time there were many expeditions of Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians who toured our estuary in search of the "cassiterite" - tin - necessary to make the bronze and in the annals are the names of the expeditionaries, previous to the romanization Many names of places, today, have their origin in the one used, for the first time, by visitors, with the logical variations indicated by toponymy.

Toralla is the name that corresponds to the coastal area - although it is losing it - and to the island, to which the whole world puts before it the "de" and they say the island "de Toralla". But no: "Isla Toralla" is its name and it can be seen, perfectly, in the "Plano de la Ría de Vigo", made by Mateu in his lithography of Calle de la Montera, number 53, in Madrid, for the book by Nicolás Taboada Leal, -first official chronicler of Vigo-, "Topographical-historical description of the city of Vigo, its estuary and its surroundings", published in 1840.

"Toralla" seems to come from "tor" and its origin is not clear but its meaning: "monte"; It could have come through Latin, from the Iberian or, perhaps, it has a Celtic base. The professor and toponimista Mr. Sacau thinks, eclectically, that "toralla" obeys a Celtic female Latin structure, "tor", and the Latin suffix "alia", simplification of land: "toralia", land in the form of a small knoll. And then add a series of toponyms that mean elevation: "Turido" (Alcabre), "Toural" (Teis), "Tourada" (Navia), "Tourón" (Oia), "Torroña", (Santa María de Oia), etc.

It has not been possible to locate documentation that proves, for sure, who the island really belonged to before the 19th century, which is not surprising because of the series of constant struggles, with the typical depredations of the victors. Although there are historians who favor the Diocese of Celanova, there are documents, in the Tuy Cathedral archive, that supposedly attest that the island was owned by the Bishopric of Tuy and, more specifically, the Coruxo Monastery.

In the history of the Bishopric of Tuy and its assets, of Ávila and of the Cave and in chapter XXXV, dedicated to the islands, it appears with number 6 the island of Toralla, which describes how it is located in front of the parishes of San Salvador from Corujo and San Miguel de Oya. It is a manuscript of which there is only one copy that is kept in the Museum of Pontevedra. There is no doubt, in any case, that they were the property of the church.
Upon the advent of Juan Álvarez Mendizábal, a financier and politician of Jewish origin and a liberal tendency, to the Presidency of the Government in 1835, one of his first legislative dispositions was to abolish, by decree, the majority of religious orders and, in 1836, the sale in public auction of the assets of monasteries and convents.

As a result of the "Disentailment", the island of Toralla was acquired by Francisco Javier Martínez Enríquez, Marqués de Valladares.

The first registration is dated July 4, 1895, in which Mr. Enrique Lameiro Sarachaga, owner of the island on that date, records the purchase of the same to Ms. María Dolores Elduayen Martínez, niece and heiress of the Marquis of Valladares, by deed dated April 30, 1892. In the deed of sale, the testament that the Marquis granted to the Notary of Vigo D. Severo González, on the 10th, is expressly cited as the property title of the seller. of February of 1888.

Previously, in the year 1882, D. Enrique Lameiro Sarachaga and D.Enrique Daviña had rented part of the island, to build a salting factory. (Three decades ago you could see some slabs with drainage channels - used as temporary pavement during some work - which many visitors assumed to be Castrexian eras.)

The island was sold by Mr. Lameiro Sarachaga to Mr. Martín de Echegaray Olañeta, an Indian who returned rich from Argentina, on October 4, 1910, as recorded in the deed granted before the Notary of Vigo, D. Casimiro Velo de la Viña and registered in his name, in the Land Registry, dated June 16, 1911.

Don Martín, on August 11, 1911, invited an agape tour on his small island to a select group of conspicuous citizens, among whom was born an idea and proposal that in the future would be one of the most important achievements for Vigo : the creation of a society that would make the installation of streetcars a reality, which began to work three years after that lunch, -the traditional thing to start, always, a good business-, on August 10, 1914.

On October 21, 1965, by deed granted before the Notary of Vigo Mr. Alberto Casal Rivas, the heirs of Mr. Martín Echegaray Olañeta formalize the sale of the island to the marriage formed by Mr. José Manuel Kowalski Fernández and Mrs. Mercedes Peyrona Díez de Güemes, for the conjugal partnership of acquisitions. It is registered in the Land Registry, in the name of both, on January 27, 1966. The purchase of the island was an enormously laborious task since it took four years to locate the more than twenty-six heirs of D. Martín Echegaray residents in Spain, Argentina, Mexico, France and the United States.



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