The Port of Ferrol is a port in A Coruna Province in Galicia, Spain. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean on the shores of the Ferrol Inlet, just 19 kilometers northeast of the Port of A Coruna. The birthplace of General Francisco Franco, it has long been an important ship-building center and port. It was Europe’s most important arsenal in the 17th Century. Today, it is the home of Navantia, Spain’s most important state-owned ship-building firm.

The Port of Ferrol is home to northern Spain’s most important naval station. It was the base for NATO’s 2008 Maritime Exercise Loyal Mariner. The city’s most important industries include horse breeding, fish farming and fishing, mining and quarries, and timber. Its ship-building industry is complemented by the manufacture of ship engines, electrical equipment, wind mill turbines and turbines for ships, textiles, canned fish, iron works, and wooden products. In 2007, almost 78 thousand people lived in the city proper, and over 241 thousand lived in the Ferrol metropolitan area.

The Port of Ferrol was named for a lighthouse (farol) that once stood at the entrance to the harbor. Humans lived in the Port of Ferrol area for thousands of years, demonstrated by the many burial chambers, large stone monuments, and petroglyphs in the region. Historian Herodotus documented the use of the port by Phoenicians and ancient Greeks.

In the 1st Century BC, the Bay of Ferrol held a fishing port. As the Roman Empire declined, Vandals raided the area. The Suevi occupied the port in 411 and, by 584, it was part of the kingdom of the Visigoths. Though raided by Arabs in the early 8th Century, it was recaptured in 754 and by the king of Asturias and held from then on as part of Christian Spain. In the 10th Century, Norman and Viking raiders joined the Arabs in attacking Spain’s Christian communities.

Today’s fortifications on the estuary entrance were built during the reign of Philip II in the middle 16th Century. In the late 16th Century, the Spanish Armada anchored there to escape stormy Atlantic seas before sailing to England and doom. By that time, the Port of Ferrol was an important Royal Arsenal.

During the 18th Century under the Bourbons, the Port of Ferrol was a major naval center, becoming capital of Spain’s Maritime Department of the North under Ferdinand VI and Charles III. Being a base for the defense of Spain’s colonial empire in the Americas, the Spanish kings made many improvements including a line of castles and fortresses along the coast. During that century, the Royal Dockyards were built, producing ships that crossed the Atlantic many times. The Royal Academy of Naval Engineers was created there in 1772.

By the early 19th Century, the Spanish Empire was in decline, and the city’s defenses fell into disrepair. A British fleet brought troops to the beach of Doninos, assailing the Castle of San Felipe. Citizens of the Port of Ferrol helped Spanish troops defend the castle and forced the British to withdraw. Despite this success, the fortresses and arsenals were abandoned, and the French occupied the town in 1809.

The Port of Ferrol lost all political and military status under Ferdinand VII. However, the Spanish Minister for Naval Affairs, Marquis de Molina, constructed the Royal Dockyards of Ferrol there, where the first Spanish steamship was built in 1858. In the late 19th Century, after Spain lost Cuba and the Philippines, a new effort to restore the country’s navy and ship-building industry resulted in new shipyards, workshops, dry docks, and foundries in the Port of Ferrol. The facilities were operated by British technicians until 1925.

In 1925, Spanish engineers assumed management of the shipyards under the new Spanish government’s policies. As the Spanish Civil War approached, the shipyards and facilities were nationalized, eventually becoming the modern Navantia. During the Franco dictatorship, the Port of Ferrol enjoyed special status as the dictator’s birthplace, and it was named El Ferrol del Caudillo (Ferrol of the Leader) from 1938 to 1982. When democracy came to Spain in 1978, the Port of Ferrol’s naval sector went into a period of decline.

In the early 21st Century, economic expansion and prosperity have returned to the Port of Ferrol. A new outer port has been constructed, and new highway connections have been completed, improving transportation and communications between the Port of Ferrol and the rest of the world.

With natural conditions that support ocean-going traffic, the Port of Ferrol has always been a center for trade and naval activity. Historians noted naval activity from the time of Rome to the Middle Ages. During the Austria dynasty, from the 16th to 18th Centuries, the Port of Ferrol was an important support to the Navy, and when the Bourbons took the Spanish crown, it became a permanent Royal Naval Base. During the 18th Century, new modern naval facilities were constructed there, and the Port of Ferrol was an important part of the Spanish Empire of the Americas. Until the early 20th Century, the Port of Ferrol was exclusively a military port. In 1910, a new dock was constructed to facilitate commercial trade in the port. In the latter 20th Century, new efforts began to expand the port and create a modern center for ocean-going trade.

The Autoridad Portuaria de Ferrol – San Cibrao is responsible for managing and operating the Port of Ferrol. The port’s entrance channel is 4000 meters long, 160 meters wide, and 12 meters deep.

The Port of Ferrol’s inner port serves the movement of solid bulk cargoes and general goods. With quays of 1478 meters with alongside depth of from six to 14 meters, the inner port offers open areas of over 280 thousand square meters and closed areas of almost 29 thousand square meters. The inner port contains two roll-on/roll-off ramps.

Commercial quays within the inner port have a total length of more than one thousand meters with alongside depth of from six to 12.5 meters. With open areas of more than 142 thousand square meters and closed areas of over 27 thousand square meters, the commercial quays include one roll-on/roll-off ramp.

Also in the Port of Ferrol’s inner port is the Short Sea Shipping Terminal with a 250-meter quay with alongside depth of 10 meters and a roll-on/roll-off ramp. The terminal contains 63.5 square meters of open area for cargo-handling. The inner port’s Coal Terminal has a 271-meter quay with alongside depth of 14 meters and open areas of more than 35 thousand square meters. The Marina in the Port of Ferrol’s inner port has quays of 636 meters with alongside depth of two meters and 234 mooring points.

The Port of Ferrol’s outer port has a thousand-meter-long protective seawall and 858 meters of docks with alongside depth of 20 meters. The outer port covers 89.3 hectares of land area, 55 hectares of which are developed. The outer port contains a Container Terminal operated by Terminal Polivalente de Ferrol SL with almost 230.5 thousand square meters of storage area, and the terminal has capacity for handling 250 TEUs per year.

The Port of Ferrol’s outer port also contains a Coal Terminal operated by Endesa Generacion SA with storage area of over 106 thousand square meters and capacity for handling five million tons of coal per year. Cop Galicia SL has the warehousing and goods storage concession that handles cements, wood products, iron and steel, and solid bulk cargoes. The concession includes more than 25 thousand square meters of storage area and the capacity to handle 450 thousand tons of cargo per year.

Also in the Port of Ferrol’s outer port is a Liquid Bulk Terminal run by the Reganosa and Forestal del Atlantico, serving local industry and energy sectors. The terminal contains one quay of 300 meters with alongside depth of 11.5 meters and one quay of 830 meters with alongside depth of 14 meters. The terminal covers almost 131 square meters of land area.

Also in the outer port is a biodiesel plant run by Entaban Biocombustibles de Galicia SA. The plant handles biodiesel, methanol, and vegetable oils. With a storage area of 32 thousand square meters, the plant has capacity for handling 400 thousand tons of cargo per year.

The Port of Ferrol’s A Grana quay houses a marina with 194 mooring points. The Fene Shipyards contain more than 657 thousand square meters of land area and two dry docks. The shipyards include quays with total length of 2520 meters and alongside depth of from five to seven meters. Three quays are devoted to small ships, three to armaments, and three to reparations. There is one quay for plate unloading and one quay for shelter. The Caranza area is being developed for fishery activities and sea sports.

In 2007, the Port of Ferrol handled over 11 million tons of cargo, including almost nine million tons of solid bulk, 1.5 million tons of liquid bulk, and over 48 thousand tons of cargo in containers. Further, more than three thousand passengers traveled through the Port of Ferrol in 2007.

The City of Ferrol (Spanish) was proclaimed a Site of Historic-Artistic Interest in 1984, largely due to its old town, Ferrol Vello, which preserves a medieval layout with narrow streets radiating from the old port. Today, the Port of Ferrol is one of Galicia’s fastest-growing towns. With a mix of ancient and ultra-modern buildings, the Port of Ferrol is a city of contrasts.

The Port of Ferrol is not one of Galicia’s most popular tourist destinations, nor does it offer much in the way of tourist attractions. It does not have a central medieval district, and its historic naval port can only be viewed from a distance.

Visitors to the Port of Ferrol will want to see the Castillo de San Felipe at the opening to the bay and the Castillo de Nogueirosa with its high walls and large keep. The port also contains several good beaches, and it sits on a beautiful bay.