On a rocky headland at the edge of A Coruña, a city of about two hundred and fifty thousand people on the north-west corner of Spain, stands a grey stone tower nearly fifty-five metres tall. It is the Tower of Hercules, and it is the oldest Roman lighthouse in the world still in use, which makes it a good deal older than almost anything else that works in Europe. UNESCO inscribed it in 2009.
The Romans built it in the late first or early second century, probably under the emperor Trajan, and an inscription at the foot names the architect, Gaius Sevius Lupus, from Aeminium, now Coimbra in Portugal. It guided ships coming in from the Atlantic toward the port the Romans called Brigantium, on a coast of reefs and fog, where many ships were lost. The tower fell into disrepair in the Middle Ages, and in 1788 it was restored and clad in neoclassical masonry, which hides the Roman core, though you can see the Roman stonework through a window in the base. The name comes from a Galician legend: Hercules killed the giant Geryon here and buried his head under the tower, and the city grew around the place, with a skull and crossed bones on its coat of arms.
The landscape here is Atlantic. Waves break on the black rocks, the wind carries the smell of salt and seaweed, and the sky changes from clear blue to heavy grey within an hour. Galicia gets a great deal of rain, so waterproofs are almost always a sensible companion, and in winter the swell can be dramatic. The coast to the north and west, the Costa da Morte, the Coast of Death, is famous for shipwrecks and wild scenery, with long, empty roads and fishing villages, and it is a superb ride on a fine day.
A Coruña itself is easy to enjoy. The old town and the harbour front, with its glass-fronted galleries, lie on a narrow isthmus, and you can walk to the tower along the seafront promenade in about an hour. For a rider the city has fuel, parking and a range of cafes, and the toll motorway to Santiago de Compostela, about seventy kilometres south, makes it an easy day trip. Eat octopus, in the Galician style with paprika and olive oil, or a tortilla, and drink the white wine of Rías Baixas.