Neda is a town of just over 5,000 inhabitants belonging to the province of A Coruña, made up of four parishes: Santa María and San Nicolás (at the foot of the Ferrol estuary) and San Pedro de Anca and San Andrés de Viladonelle (located in inside the town). This is the second town visited by pilgrims who travel the English Way starting from Ferrol (which is only 9 km away).
The historic center, crossed by the Way, begins with the church of Santa María de Neda. The baroque temple, formerly called Santa María do Porto, is well worth a stop to admire the Christ of the Chain inside, a unique Tudor-style Gothic carving that, according to tradition, arrived in Neda aboard a ship captained by the English Catholic John Dutton.
The sailor would have rescued the image, among others, of Saint Paul's Cathedral in London, before the protestant anger devastated the works. And the fact is that Neda was a town of great importance as it was a point of confluence with the Camino Real that from Oviedo, Ribadeo and Mondoñedo leads to As Pontes de García Rodríguez, where it branches off towards Pontedeume.
If you are traveling the Camino de Santiago or are planning to do so soon, you should know that the distance that separates Neda from Santiago de Compostela is 102 kilometers.
