Viking Festival of Catoira has been celebrated since 1961. The first stage was the Ateneo de Ullán forum between 1961 and 1964. In 1959, the poet and priest Faustino Rey Romero from Isorna along with the poet Baldomero Isorna Casal from Catoira, founded the Ateneo de Ullán, an artistic and literary forum made up of intellectuals from the local area. This group of intellectuals decided at one of their gatherings in 1960 that it would be a good idea to celebrate the landing of King Olaf by means of a festival. The first Viking Festival took place on 29 July 1961 with a mass in Santiago's Castellum Honesti fortress chapel, in memory of Diego Xelmírez and the others who defended the fortress. In addition, Pedro Montañés, crowned with tree branches, played the role of the fearsome Viking Ulfo and jumped from his
dorna boat to the land in order to meet with the Bishop Cresconio, represented by Priest Romero who, with mere words, dominated the invader, making him kneel submissively before the representative of Christianity. Afterwards, a picnic lunch took place to the sound of bagpipes, as well as a reading in which writers of the region participated. The current proclamation of the festivities is inspired on these events. At night,
cacharelas (a type of bonfire) are lit in the merlons of the towers in order to remember the way they warned of the Vikings arrival in the estuary. The second stage which began in 1965 and lasted until 1990, was the consolidation period for the festival, sponsored by Cerámica Domínguez del Noroeste S.A (a local ceramics and flooring company) and organised by their workers. In 1988 the festivities were declared to be of National Tourist Interest. The third and final stage began in 1991 when the council of Catoira took charge of the festival. This period of international projection started by twinning Catoira with the Danish village of Frederikssund. In 2002 the festival was declared to be of
International Tourist Interest. ==Overview==