Island of San Simón

[1][2] The island presides over the inlet of San Simón at the inner end of the Vigo estuary, which drains the municipalities of Redondela, Soutomaior and Vilaboa.

[3] The Island of San Simón was an ancient monastic centre the poet Mendinho sang about in the Middle Ages; this song is the author's only known writing.

After being abandoned for almost a century, the diocese of Tuy, which until then had political control of the island, ceded it to Isabella the Catholic, in an act of kindness and gratitude for her loyalty.

[4] After remaining abandoned for almost a century, the diocese of Tui, which until then had political control of the island, ceded it to Elizabeth the Catholic in an act of kindness and gratitude for her fidelity.

[4][3] The inlet was the scene of the Battle of Rande in 1702, when ships from Holland and England, united by the War of Succession against the Crown of Castile, tried to assault the Indies fleet loaded with nearly three years' worth of goods.

The galleons belonged to the Crown of Castile and were escorted by French police from America, which resulted in the defeat of the Franco-Castilian forces.

A large part of the galleons' contents, which are believed to be gold, silver, diamonds, spices such as cocoa, and fine woods and tobacco, were plundered by the English ships of the Queen of England Anne I of Stuart, but in an attempt to thwart the robbery, a large part of the ships' wealth was thrown into the sea.

Accounts of the whereabouts of the riches since the event are unclear, and numerous dives carried out after the sinking of the ships but no gold and other precious materials were found around the island.

Subsequently, by Royal Ordinance of 6 June 1838 and with the help of the Riojan merchant Velázquez Moreno, the island was converted into a leper colony o(lazaretto).

[8] From 1936, with the advent of the Spanish Civil War, the island's buildings were used as a concentration and extermination camp[1] for political prisoners who were opposed to Francoism.

At first, most of them came from nearby areas such as Vigo, Pontevedra, Province of Ourense and Vilagarcía de Arousa; after the fall of the Republican northern front, prisoners came from Asturias, León, Cantabria and the Basque Country.