Galicia, host to the end of the earth, Finisterre

The Cathedral, Santiago (CJM)

Much moister than the rest of Spain, it is known in the country as the producer of much of our milk. The capital, Santiago, is famous for the pilgrimage route, established in the Middle Ages at a time when it was impossible to reach Jerusalem, due to the Crusades. Even today, many pilgrims and walkers dedicate their holidays to walk all or part of the great route across the north of Spain.

Government web site
Tourist information

Population 1/2008: 2,783,100 of whom 95,122 (3.4%) are foreigners

The Churches

The origins of the evangelical movement in Galicia can be found in Brethren missionaries from Britain in the late 19th century. To this day the Open Brethren are particularly strong in the region.

Membership: (PTL 1997) 5,428
Churches: 103
Towns with over 5,000 inhabitants with no church: 66 (Decisión 2008)

List of churches
List of unevangelised towns in the province of A Coruña. Click on lower left hand map for other provinces.

Some of the best established evangelical churches of Spain can be found in towns dotting the coastal regions of Galicia. British missionaries from the Plymouth Brethren arrived here in the late nineteenth century and began the work of planting churches which have survived strong -but very conservative- to this day.

On the other hand, the number of significantly sized villages with no evangelical church is alarming. One of the problems with church planting in Galicia is the nature of municipalities. Many villages have only a few houses in the kernel, close to Catholic church and local shop. The remainder of the population live widely spread out in farm houses. This is a completely different cultural setting to the towns of the Castilian Meseta, where houses are closely packed and the countryside was traditionally totally uninhabited.