[1] The square owes its name to its location in the space occupied, five centuries ago, by one of the most important quays of the city[2] before the successive fillings, when the sea still reached this place at the bottom of the Lérez river.

In 1876, the municipal architect Alejandro Sesmero proposed to carry out "improvements to the ornamentation and alignments of the Quay Square and the location of a new fountain".

[10][11] In 1931, a floor was added to an existing one for the current Building of the Official Association of Building Engineers and Technical Architects of Pontevedra,[12] to the south of the square, but it was not until the mid-50s of the 20th century that, according to the project of the architect Juan Argenti Navajas, an additional floor was added with an attic under the roof, which configured its current structure.

The central part of the square is a landscaped area, with small paved paths between the lawns, which converge in the centre on a neoclassical fountain dating from 1876, topped by the statue of the Roman goddess Fama.

[11] In the northern part of the garden, there is a stone monolith with the following inscription: "More than half a millennium ago, the caravel Santa María "la Gallega" was built on this bank of the Lérez, where Admiral Christopher Columbus changed the fate of the world".

[13] To the north of the square, at the end of Arzobispo Malvar Street, is the former birthplace of the intellectual and mayor of Pontevedra Xosé Filgueira Valverde.

The northern façade, which faces the square, has a large stone chimney on the right-hand side and segmental arches in the windows of the first and second floors.