Torre do reloxo

On 17 August 1941, the dream of a group of visionary Arnoia natives living in Uruguai came true.

In the Val de San Vicente there stands a stone tower more than fourteen metres tall, in the area of the Capela de San Roque, built by the stonemason Mr Manuel García Vermello, known as Manuel de Trinidá (from Remuiño).

Back around 1929, a group of emigrant dreamers began to devise some form of help for those who had stayed in Arnoia. Thus they came up with the happy idea of a public clock, located in the Turreiro, which would serve to regulate the irrigation hours and so avoid disputes over the time allotted to each farmer to water their fields.

Long years passed until, in 1941, the Plenary of the Concello de Arnoia met, with Mr Delfín Moure Lorenzo as Mayor; Mr Nabor Vázquez Cao, second deputy mayor; Mr Avelino Vermello Martínez, administrators of the corporation; and the neighbours’ committee made up of Mr Emilio Cid Nóvoa (parish priest); chairman Mr Evencio Álvarez Bangueses; Mr Juan Reibelo Martinez; Mr Lorenzo Vázquez Rodríguez; Mr Arturo Rono Miguez; Mr Andrés Cartelle Deaño; Mr José Bangueses Santamaría; and Mr Celso Martínez Ledo, members — representing the Centro Arnoia de Montevideo, made the dream come true.

The local representation of the “Centro Arnoia de Montevideo” handed over, in that ceremony held on 17 August 1945, the Tower’s Public Clock of this Corporation (as recorded in the archive of the Concello’s secretariat).

This handover was made “with all the rights and obligations of custody, care and conservation”, and as stated in the aforementioned document:

The Mayor placed on record:

The inauguration ceremony included the blessing of the work, in the presence of the townspeople,

There are events in the life of people and of towns that mark a before and an after. The Clock of the Torre de San Roque, with its gleaming presence, became a symbol of emigration to Uruguai and an indispensable companion that would shape the lives of the farmers of Arnoia.

There are three clock faces, which can be seen — thanks to their location in the “Turreiro” — from both valleys of Arnoia. The Torre do Reloxo is crowned by the bell whose sound announces the hours; the work cost 17.000 ptas at the time. The Concello covered the expenses that still had to be raised for the inauguration festivities.

Those of us who lived in Montevideo learned of stories linked to the Clock, told to us by the old emigrants with tears in their eyes.

Since time immemorial there has stood in that area a small Chapel in honour of San Roque. At dawn the Chapel’s bell “rang for the Alba (daybreak)” and at nightfall it “rang for the prayers”. These “tolls” now live only in the memory of the elders. Even today they announce the death of the villagers from the belfry. In the old days different tones were rung to announce the passing of a man or a woman of the village.

During the festivities they carry on with their pealing, brightening the landscape and leading the procession of the Saint being commemorated.

On 16 August each year, the Festa de San Roque is held once more. The Procession begins around the Clock. Given the small size of the Chapel, the villagers attend Mass from outside under a scorching sun, in the height of August. Airiños de Arnoia parades through the town inviting everyone to take part in the Festa.

In the area around the Clock, the stalls selling sweets and rosquillas (ring-shaped pastries) complete the scene, alongside a large stage that will host the orchestra livening up the dance at night.

Next to the Clock, an improvised canteen run by the young women of the town completes the picture.

The organisation of the Festa de San Roque is in the hands of a group of residents of the Val de San Vicente who, year after year, renew themselves and seek different ways to secure the collaboration of their neighbours.

After dinner — where the pementos (peppers) and the good wine of Arnoia are never missing — the whole family, joined by guests and friends from the Val de San Mauro, come together to enjoy the open-air dance.

It is a moment of reunion; the villagers share their joy with other villagers who arrange their holidays from Switzerland, Germany, Barcelona, the Basque Country, Salamanca, Madrid, Vigo and Ourense to coincide with the Festa de San Roque.

Most of them arrive in the first days of August to enjoy the “Festa do Pemento” and then carry on with that of San Roque. The reunions are deeply moving and make these festivities such that, each year, the bonfires grow ever more striking and the greetings ever more heartfelt.

The villagers attend dressed in their finest attire, even though the dancing kicks up a dust cloud worthy of mention.

We bid farewell to the Festa de San Roque until next 16 August, leaving there, as a solitary sentinel, the Tower Clock, whose inscription moves us: