The spirit of Antela
A Limia has a unique landscape in Galicia, with large fields in a flat area that is partially flooded and flanked by round-top mountains.
Its past was marked by the former Antela lagoon. This wetland, which in some winters reached 7 km long and 6 meters wide, was drained as part of the aggressive agricultural policies in the early 1960s. Together with the lake, many species of birds -many of them water birds- also disappeared, and today they are threatened. Currently, the aggregate mines that are in the municipalities of Xinzo de Limia, Sandiás and Vilar de Santos offer an opportunity for some of these birds to return to the areas they traditionally occupied.
There are also wooded groves of mainly willow on the banks of the canals, rivers, streams and naturalised sand pits and oak groves on the edge of the cultivated flatlands. The villages' small agro-pastoral areas are often well preserved and host many bird species. Many of these areas are now protected as ZEPAs (Special Bird Protection Areas).