ABSTRACT
There is little room for doubt about the geographical location of Galicia in the European continent: it is one of its ‘land’s ends’, stuck in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, in the Southwest of Europe. Without wanting to make easy recourse to physical determinism, this circumstance conditions many of the characteristic features of this land: the fact that it falls within the temperate climatic zone, with high rainfall, reflects on its landscapes and its culture; its physical isolation, aggravated by the presence of a mountain barrier hindering transport links with the East, has also caused greater contact through its southern borders with Portugal and through the North and West, across the ocean, with other nations from outside Iberian Peninsula. Many of the peculiarities of Galician culture were preserved thanks to the difficulties of contact with other Iberian peoples from inland Spain. However the difficulties brought about by this isolation and limited accessibility, in comparison to other European countries, were widely offset by the importance of maritime routes, above all as far as trade is concerned.
