O Barco de Valdeorras

El Barco de Valdeorras

Camino de Invierno

Ourense · OrenseGalicia

Barco has a double reading —⁠from the pre-Roman *barc- 'hollow' or from the word barca, 'boat', after the ferry over the Sil⁠—⁠; Valdeorras is not 'valley of gold' but 'valley of the gigurri', the Asturian people Pliny called Gigurri.

The second name hides a people. Valdeorras sounds like 'valley of gold', and the district had gold to spare —⁠the Roman mines of the Sil, sisters of Las Médulas⁠— but the etymology comes not from the metal but from the people: the gigurri (Gigurri in Pliny, Egurros in Ptolemy), an Asturian tribe whose Forum Gigurrorum lay near A Rúa. The medieval forms prove it: Geurres, Iorres, Val de Iorres, Valdiorres until the 19th century, with no trace of aurum. The 'valley of gold' is a folk etymology, as pretty as it is false, which the district's wine has helped to fix. As for Barco, it is debated: some make it pre-Roman, *barc- 'hollow', after the dip of the Sil where the town sits; others read it literally, the barca that crossed the river before there was a bridge.

Evolution of the name

  1. Gigurri / Egurros pre-Roman (Asturian) Roman era
  2. Vallis Gigurrorum Latin Roman era
  3. Val de Iorres / Valdiorres Galician Middle Ages – 19th century
  4. Valdeorras Galician modern

Reflections, to the letter

They will tell you that you are in the 'valley of gold', and there was gold —⁠the Romans shovelled it out of the Sil⁠— but the name lies in your favour: Valdeorras holds the gigurri, the Asturian tribe who lived here before the mines. Look for them in the old forms, Iorres, Valdiorres, where gold appears nowhere at all. The town sinks into the hollow of the Sil —⁠perhaps that is Barco, 'concavity'⁠— and around it the vineyard climbs in terraces over slate: godello and mencía in the same soil Rome turned over looking for something else.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

probable

Sources

  • Cabeza Quiles, F. — Toponimia de Galicia (Vigo: Galaxia, 2008)
  • Plinio el Viejo — Naturalis Historia (IV, 28: Gigurri)
  • Ptolomeo — Geographia (II, 6: Egurros)
  • Bascuas, E. — Estudios de hidronimia paleoeuropea gallega (Universidade de Santiago, 2002)

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Camino de Invierno

  1. ··· toward Santiago
  2. A Pobra do Brollón
  3. Quiroga
  4. Montefurado
  5. Petín
  6. A Rúa
  7. Vilamartín de Valdeorras
  8. O Barco de Valdeorras
  9. Puente de Domingo Flórez
  10. Las Médulas
  11. Priaranza del Bierzo
  12. Ponferrada