Today's Bing Wallpaper: Cathedral Beach, Galicia, Spain — "The Hidden Corridors of Galicia"
Image: Bing Daily Wallpaper · Cathedral Beach, Galicia, Spain (© Tui De Roy/Amazing Aerial Agency/Adobe Stock) · Official image (UHD)
Open Bing's homepage today and the search bar sits atop a stretch of coastline seen from high above: green meadows roll right to the cliff edge and stop dead, pale sand wedged between dark rock walls, the clear waters of the Atlantic beyond. Today's title is just four characters in the original Chinese — "The Hidden Corridors of Galicia."
"Galicia" is the green corner of northwestern Spain, perpetually watered by Atlantic rains. Bing's official blurb even says its character is closer to Ireland than to the sun-baked south most people picture. And the "hidden corridors" refer to the most famous stretch of this coast: Cathedral Beach (Praia das Catedrais).
The Cathedral Built by the Sea
The name was actually coined by visitors. Its original name on the map is even better: Praia de Augas Santas — "Beach of Holy Waters." According to the Ribadeo tourist office, it was named after a local spring once believed to have healing powers. The "Cathedral" nickname comes from the rock arches revealed at low tide: the tallest nearly thirty metres high, rising one after another from the sand like the flying buttresses and vaulted ceilings of a Gothic cathedral. Located on the Cantabrian coast about ten kilometres west of the town of Ribadeo in the province of Lugo, it was designated a "Natural Monument" by the Galician autonomous government long ago.
These "buttresses" are staggeringly old. The quartzite and slate that make up the beach formed roughly five hundred million years ago on a Southern Hemisphere coast, then were compressed and uplifted by tectonic forces into a mountain range said to have rivalled today's Himalayas. After the mountains wore down, it was the sea's turn to go to work — waves carved sea caves along fractures in the rock; caves joined up, their roofs collapsed, and eventually the waves punched clean through the rock walls, leaving arch after arch behind. Locals have a name for every stage: the caves are called furnas; the skylights left by collapsed roofs are ollos — "eyes."
This cathedral also has a special rule: it only opens its doors at low tide. When the tide is in, the water reaches all the way to the foot of the cliffs and the beach shrinks to a narrow strip; only during the few hours when the tide is fully out can you walk along the sandy corridors between the arches. The coastline here is so flat that the water returns fast — miss your window and you really can find yourself trapped beneath the rock walls. Nowadays, in peak season, you even have to book ahead on the official website — a cathedral that requires a tide chart and a reservation.
Why Today
Bing doesn't spell out why it chose today, but the calendar does. July 25 is the Feast of Saint James (Día de Santiago). Saint James is the patron saint of Spain. Tradition holds that he preached on the Iberian Peninsula; after his martyrdom, his remains were carried by boat to the Galician coast and buried in what would become Santiago de Compostela — a city that ranks alongside Jerusalem and Rome as a pilgrimage destination. The route leading to it, the Way of Saint James, is now a World Heritage Site.
For Galicians, this day carries a second identity: Galician National Day. In 1919, the cultural organisation Irmandades da Fala ("Brotherhoods of the Language") met in Santiago and resolved that, from the following year, the patron saint's feast day would serve as the festival of the entire nation; in 1979, the autonomous government made it official. Every year on the night of July 24, the façade of Santiago de Compostela Cathedral is lit up with fireworks and light projections. At the High Mass on the 25th, a royal representative makes an offering to Saint James — a ritual traceable to the "Vow of Saint James" established by Philip IV in 1646 — and the cathedral's enormous censer, the Botafumeiro, is hauled on ropes by attendants, swinging in great arcs across the nave, nearly grazing the vaulted ceiling.
So on the day Galicia celebrates its own stone cathedral, Bing put the one built by the sea on its homepage. Even the beach's original name, "Beach of Holy Waters," sounds tailor-made for the occasion. One more thing: by a rule dating back to the twelfth century, whenever July 25 falls on a Sunday, Santiago de Compostela declares a Holy Year. This year July 25 is a Saturday — which means next year is the one.
Behind the Lens
The name in the credit line deserves a second look: Tui De Roy. Yesterday's wallpaper of American flamingos on the Galápagos Islands was credited to her as well. A photographer who grew up on the Galápagos from the age of two and has spent over fifty years documenting wildlife, she is widely regarded as the most important visual chronicler of those islands. Today's aerial shot, distributed through the aerial image agency Amazing Aerial Agency, carries her name from the equatorial archipelago all the way to the Atlantic coast.
Human-built cathedrals can usually be completed in a few hundred years. The sea's version has been under construction for five hundred million years and still isn't finished — and it's only open a few hours a day. Fair enough, perhaps: to reach the cathedral in Santiago, pilgrims have to walk hundreds of kilometres. To reach the sea's cathedral, all you need is to read a tide chart — and remember: before the tide comes back in, get out.
Sources: Ribadeo Tourist Office · Wikipedia: As Catedrais beach · Wikipedia: Día Nacional de Galicia · spain.info · CaminoWays