Baiona

Peninsular onomastics has debated for decades the origin of Baiona. The base bai- appears in European Atlantic coastal toponyms —⁠French Bayonne, Portuguese Baiona, Galician Baiona⁠— and the most widespread pre-Roman reading connects it with a Celtic root linked to the liquid element or to the quality of protected bay. The Roman name of the place was Erizana, Latinisation of an anthroponym or of a different pre-Roman base; the current toponym reappears in medieval documentation from the 10th century. The town has a major historical episode: on 1 March 1493, the caravel Pinta of Martín Alonso Pinzón —⁠separated from Christopher Columbus's expedition during the return from the Caribbean⁠— docked at the port of Baiona, becoming the first European port to receive the official news of the discovery of the New World. A replica of the Pinta, docked at the marina, commemorates the episode. The castle of Monterreal, a 16th-century Renaissance fortress on the promontory that protects the bay, is today a national Parador. The Costa pilgrim crosses Baiona after Mougás, in the last stretch before Vigo.