Ribadiso

Ripa, 'bank', generated in Galician-Portuguese the word riba with a broad topographic sense —⁠the margin of a river, a slope beside water, a riverside terrain. In toponymy it is one of the most productive elements of the northwestern quadrant: Ribadeo, Ribadavia, Ribadelago, Ribadulla. The formula Ribada + hydronym follows a habitual pattern: the first element places the location on a specific bank, the second identifies the river. The hydronym Iso is pre-Roman and of opaque meaning, attested in charters of the Sobrado monastery from the 11th century. The hamlet is tiny —⁠barely a handful of houses⁠— but its Jacobean importance is notable: the public hostel of Ribadiso, installed in an old pilgrim hospice documented since the 12th century, is one of the best known on the Camino. The medieval bridge over the Iso river, restored, is the last before the climb to Arzúa.