To obtain the precious “Compostela”, you must complete at least the last 100 kilometres on foot or on horseback, the last 200 km by bike or 100 nautical miles, finishing the rest of the way on foot from the port of disembarkation. The last 100 kilometres must be done by any of the routes recognized as official, like the Camino Francés, and Sarria can be one more stage in your pilgrimage or the starting point to Santiago.
The trees allow us to travel. Travel through time, music, the transport we use or the new lives we generate.
Just by looking at the growth rings of a tree, we can tell in which year a drought occurred, if there was a fire or from which side the wind blows more. In addition, trees provide us with wood to create instruments, or to build means of transport such as boats, bicycles or railway sleepers.
So that we can continue travelling now and in the future, PEFC forest certification establishes a series of standards and controls that guarantee that the mountains are managed properly and responsibly.
Árboles para viajar
When you leave Sarria, you must cross the Ponte da Áspera, from the 18th century. As you cross the bridge, your journey will continue parallel to the train track for approximately one kilometre. It is at this point where we want to talk about the importance of trees, also in means of transport, in this case, the railway.
The 1 of January of 2021 the European Year of the Railway begins, an initiative of the European Commission aimed at highlighting the benefits of railways as a sustainable means of transport, smart and safe, in order to encourage its use, both by citizens and by companies, and contribute to the objective of the European Green Deal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
In the European Union, the railway is responsible for less than 0,5 % of greenhouse effect gas emissions associated with transport, in other words, it is one of the most sustainable and safe forms of passenger and freight transport. Despite these advantages, only 7% of passengers and approximately 11% of goods travel by railway, which is why the EU wants to promote this means of transport and achieve a single, more efficient European railway space, with seamless cross-border mobility.
Have you noticed where the train runs?
On the railways, you will see some transverse elements of the track that support the rails, they control the track width and transmit the loads from the rail to the ballast, and they are the sleepers. The sleepers are mainly made of wood or prestressed concrete (bibloc or monobloc).
But since it could not be otherwise, in this case we will talk about wooden sleepers, since wood is renewable, reusable and recyclable material, unlike concrete.
The Wood for the manufacture of sleepers must meet a series of requirements and characteristics, such as, coming from live, healthy, good quality trees and straight, hard and compact fibers.
The woods used are generally oak, pine, beech or other tropical ones such as Akoga.
The manufacturer must carry out all the studies and tests that may be necessary to guarantee the resistance and durability of the material during its useful life, verifying its resistance to factors such as temperature, water, hydrocarbons or any other chemical agent that may be present in the infrastructures. In addition, the manufacturer must issue for each production batch, a responsible declaration of the species and origin of the wood and guarantee its traceability during the production process. Sleepers will be permanently marked with information for traceability.
In Spain, as in the rest of European countries, the sleepers, in addition to the technical requirements, must comply with the legality requirements of the wood. The sleepers must be in accordance with the applicable regulations regarding the environment and the marketing of the wood, in particular, with the requirements established in the Real Decreto 1088/2015, of the 4 of December, to ensure the legality of the commercialization of wood and wood products.
Consequently, the wooden sleepers that require it and that come from a country with a Voluntary Association Agreement in force will have a FLEGT license issued by the country of origin, according to the Council Regulation (CE) 2173/2005 concerning the establishment of a FLEGT licensing system for wood imports into the European Community.
In general, for all Wood that is marketed for the first time in the internal market, Regulation (UE) 995/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council will apply, which establishes the obligations of agents who market wood and wood products, in EUTR Regulation. In this sense, in the event that the manufacturer or supplier of the raw material acts as EUTR agent, a due diligence system must be arranged and applied, as well as presenting the responsible declaration before the competent authorities.
The wooden sleeper is becoming more and more reduced and its use, although it is used in numerous cases where its qualities make it necessary, such as detours, bridges, substitutions, secondary roads, stations, etc.
Some sleepers are treated with creosote, a treatment that is given to wood exposed to the open air and buried to prevent the attack of fungi and bacteria in some woods, and which is currently questionable due to its toxicity. The European Union began to establish limitations on the trade and use of the creosote, currently being used with certain specificities and for those uses in which there is no frequent contact with the skin. The current industrial uses of creosote-treated wood, such as railway sleepers, electrical and telephone poles, agricultural purposes, ports and waterways does not pose any type of health problem, as they are not in contact with the population. A significant part of the current uses of creosote-treated wood, is its reuse for landscaping and ornamental uses.
The wooden sleeper has indisputable and complementary qualities compared to the characteristics of the concrete sleeper. For its sustainable origin and in many cases km0, as a renewable raw material, for its qualities of elasticity and resistance, for its low weight that helps with the installation, for its good behaviour in the event of derailment, or being an economical product from an energy point of view, both for production and from the point of view of its transport, or for its possible reuse and of course as a CO2 sink.
Research is essential to improve or innovate with new treatments that do not offer doubts about its use of wood and continue enjoying all the benefits it provides instead of others less friendly to the planet.
In Galicia we have PEFC certified forestry companies such as MADERAS TORREIRA, S.L. from Agolada (Pontevedra), that are specialists in the manufacture of railway sleepers.
They manufacture sleepers for both wide gauge and narrow gauge. Mainly, they make oak wood sleepers, although they can also manufacture pine wood and akoga wood on demand. Their customers can buy them without any treatment or treated with creosote. They can also perform different machining: grooved, drilled, strapped, veneered with gang-nail system, etc.
Source: Maderas Torreira, S.L.
New trip. Reuse of the wood
Increasingly, the wooden sleepers of the railways are replaced by concrete, but despite this, wood is a material that we can reuse. For this reason, many of the sleepers removed from the train tracks find a second life in gardens, fences, retaining walls…, any use that be given outside. It should not be used indoors due to the treatment applied to the wood exposed to the outdoors.
There are sleepers that can have up to a half century of life, and in addition to keeping their shape, structure and physical qualities perfect in most cases, with its new use, we continue to store the CO2 captured by this wood.
Source: Maderas Torreira, S.L.
At Maderas Torreira, S.L., Galician company that has a PEFC chain of custody certificate, and that its main activity is to produce sleepers for railway tracks, they also have a stock of wooden sleepers for use in gardening or closures. With different measurements and options of oak sleepers. Thanks to the hardness and functionality of natural wood, they offer an appearance and rusticity that make them ideal for gardening.
Source: Maderas Torreira, S.L.
Trees that giv e music. Luthiers
Antonio Fernández López, entrepreneur, Paulino Pérez Sánchez, luthier, Avelino Pousa Antelo, intellectual, Xermán Arias, luthier, what is their history in common?
The Granja de Barreiros (Sarria), founded in the year 39 by the business man and philanthropist from Lugo, Antonio Fernández López, was a pioneering environmental education project in Galicia, with the aim of being a model that could improve and modernize the agricultural techniques used up to then. Later, in1948, the Escuela Primaria de Orientación Agrícola (Primary School of Agricultural Orientation) of the Granja de Barreiros, whose activities included the organization of training courses for teachers with the aim of protecting Galician rural culture, modernizing the countryside and Galician rural heritage. The pedagogical model, centered on the cycles of nature, scientific, co-educational, globalized and personalized, natural, experimental and experiential teaching. As teaching support, Antonio Fernández López, promoted the creation of school gardens in the Public Schools of the Province.
The Agricultural School of the Granja Barreiros was directed by the intellectual Avelino Pousa Antelo, training teacher, member of the Mocedades Galeguistas, president of the Fundación Castelao or honorary president of the Fundación do Pedrón de Ouro, among many other facets.
Five minutes from the Escuela de Barreiros, in 1907 Paulino Pérez was born in Vilei, right on the Camino Francés. Paulino began playing the bass drum at the age of 10 in the quartet directed by his uncle and later the bagpipes. At fourteen he builds his first instrument and the tools he uses, although it is not until a little later that he focuses on this craft.
It will be later, when Avelino Pousa Antelo offers Paulino to hold a small concert, meeting at that time who will be his patron, Antonio Fernández López.
The son of Antón de Marcos, a prominent businessman from Sarria, commissioned him to build some bagpipes for a group of children and also teach them how to play them.
From these interesting encounters, the creation of the bagpipes and hurdy-gurdy workshop of the Provincial Council of Lugo will come, in the year 1951, under the direction of Faustino Santalices.
In 1954 Paulino travelled to Madrid, on a scholarship from Antonio Fernández, to learn from a famous guitar maker.
His son Xesús and his grandson Luciano Pérez continued the work of this craftsman whose total number of bagpipes built is between two and two thousand five hundred.
Image in Triacastela
In the musical instrument workshop of the Lugo Provincial Council, Xermán Arias (Vilei, 1965), begins his training, learning the trade for eight years, under the direction of Xesús y Luciano Pérez.
In 1994, Xermán founded his first workshop and travelled to France to train with the Gallic luthier Christian Roult. With him he specialized in the manufacture of violin, violas, cellos and hurdy-gurdy.
Xermán Arias or Xermán Luthier, has a workshop and home in Sarria, opening his doors to musicians and turning his house into a place for social gatherings. Arxemil Lutheria is how his establishment is known, where instruments are made for teachers and students of conservatories, musicians of the two Galician and National orchestras and many more, being the world of classical music where most of his commissions come from.
But, what are these instruments made of?
According to Xermán in several interviews, the key to a good instrument is in the wood and the balance, which works well in all registers. To achieve this, you have to know how to choose the raw material. Although for the elaboration of these instruments it is necessary to import wood such as maple, fir or ebony, in Galicia many other traditional instruments such as the tambourine are made, for which they use local woods such as pine, ash, cherry or walnut. Wood is present in traditional and modern music, in all its styles, from a drum to a guitar or from a flute to a violin.
Luthiers from the Centre for Crafts and Design in Lugo made the reproduction of seven instruments that appear in the Pórtico da Gloria a reality, used from the beginning of the 12th century to the end of the 13th century. Xermán Arias, participated in the reconstruction of said instruments, which were presented through an itinerant exhibition «A memoria do son» that received thousands of visits.
What to visit?
Without considering the city of Santiago, Sarria is the largest town on the Camino Francés, that can be considered a small city, with two different areas, a modern one, where you can enjoy a pedestrian walk along the banks of the Sarria River, the Paseo do Malecón, and a beautiful old area that you can access, among others, by the Escaleira da Fonte, from the mid-19th century. Very close from there you will find the church of Santa Mariña.
Other points of interest in Sarria, are the church of El Salvador, or the convent of A Magdanela, surrounded by trees.
In the highest part of the town, you can see the Fortress Tower, commonly known as “Torre do Batallón”. The tower of about 15 meters, is the witness of what one day was a fortress that defended the Camino de Santiago and the region of Sarria. The visit to the remains is not allowed, since it is currently a private property.
Sarria offers varied green spaces and recreational areas, both in urban and natural areas, mainly dealing with environments linked to the rivers that run through the municipality.
You can do several hiking routes, among them, the Ruta de A Foz das Aceas. You will walk along the banks of the Sarria River through a circular route of 6km, surrounded by birch, ash, alder, willow, chestnut, oak , and much more! You can discover on this route an enormous natural wealth with a large number of species of flora and fauna. Windmills, wooden bridges or a waterfall, are other elements of the route along with different information panels along the way.
The Role of PEFC
The use and international trade of wood has two requirement levels, legality and sustainability.
Governments of all over the world promoted a law designed to guarantee legal wood trade and reject the entrance in the market of forestry products with illegal origin. Some of these regulations are the European Wood Regulation (Regulamento Europeo da Madeira) (EUTR) or the Lacey Law of the USA. The certification of the PEFC Chain Custody is designed to show that all these requirements are fulfilled.
PEFC demands through its Chain of Custody Regulation, that organizations implement a Due Diligence System (SDD) in order to help make sure that their activities meet the requirements requested by the applicable law regarding wood legality, including commercial and customs laws, and also to reduce the risk of forestry material acquired coming from conflict sources. SDD establishes a procedural framework, measures, collection of information, risk assessment and its mitigation.
PEFC forestry certification is a guarantee of legal and sustainable use of wood and any other forestry product.
