Xinzo de Limia

Xinzo is a town of services and an important stopping point on the main Vigo-Madrid highway. There are several small industries, including a glass factory, and many pig, cow and dairy farms in the surrounding area. The drained lakebed of Antela, once Spain's largest freshwater lake until the 1950s, produces cereals, hay, and especially potatoes. Xinzo is in fact one of Spain's largest producers of potatoes.

There is a legend connected to Xinzo. Several classical authors of antiquity reproduce the myth of the loss of memory connected to crossing the Límia River, referred by them as Lethes or Oblivionis (compare the river Lethe of Greek mythology). In 138 BC the Roman chieftain Decimus Junius Brutus put an end to the myth told by the Galicians when, on crossing the river, he began to call each one of his legionnaires by their names from the opposite bank. That historical fact has been now represented in an historical party called Festa do Esquecemento. Seeing the Límia today it is difficult to imagine this tiny river provoking such a fear.

Xinzo has few monuments but is famous for hosting one of Galicia's most typical carnivals. The characteristic figure is the pantalla, which symbolizes the devil. The pantalla is the guardian of the carnival, and runs through the streets in groups of two or three with two swollen pig bladders in the hands making huge noise.