Pazos de Arenteiro

Camino de la Geira y los Arrieiros · Camino Miñoto Ribeiro

Ourense · OrenseGalicia

Here Camino de la Geira y los Arrieiros and Camino Miñoto Ribeiro converge. It is one of the points where the pilgrim shares the way with those arriving by another route.

Pazos, from the Latin palatium 'palace, manor house' —⁠the Galician pazo⁠—⁠; Arenteiro, from the river, the old Argentarium, 'the silver one', after its silvery sands.

The name is some houses and a river. Pazos is the plural of pazo, the Galician manor house, from the Latin palatium, 'palace': a descriptive toponym, after the stone houses with coats of arms that make up the village. Arenteiro is the name of the river, and goes back to the Latin argentarium, 'the silver one', from argentum: it was so called for its silvery-glinting sands, not for the arena, the sand, with which folk etymology confuses it. The old form confirms it: in 1158 the place appears as Palacios de Argentario in a donation to the monastery of San Clodio. The ensemble —⁠the manors by the silver river⁠— is today one of the best-preserved medieval stone quarters in Galicia, with its bridges and its Romanesque church.

Evolution of the name

  1. Palacios de Argentario Latin / Galician attested 1158
  2. Pazos de Arenteiro Galician modern

Reflections, to the letter

The name is literal: Pazos, the stone manor houses in front of you, from the Latin palatium, 'palace'. And Arenteiro is the river, once called Argentario, 'the silver one', for the glint of its sands —⁠not for plain sand, though it looks that way⁠—⁠. In 1158 the place was already 'Palacios de Argentario'. Cross the old bridges over the Avia and the Arenteiro: few towns on the Camino honour their name as much as this cluster of manors by the silver river.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

probable

Sources

  • Cabeza Quiles, F. — Os nomes de lugar. Topónimos de Galicia (Vigo: Xerais, 2000)
  • Concello de Boborás — ficha de Pazos de Arenteiro
  • Turismo de Galicia — «Pazos de Arenteiro»

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Camino de la Geira y los Arrieiros

  1. Santiago de Compostela
  2. Codeseda
  3. Beariz
  4. Pazos de Arenteiro
  5. Ribadavia
  6. Cortegada
  7. Lobios
  8. Baños de Riocaldo
  9. Portela do Homem
  10. Braga