The history of Praza do Tapal takes us back to the Middle Ages with the execution of Ruy Soga de Lobeira, the main verger of Santiago Cathedral in the fourteenth century, to the “Irmandiña” uprising against Tapal Castle and, in the twentieth century, its name evokes the death of the director Claudio Guerín –when he was filming The Bell from Hell, while supervising a scene from the top of the church, he slipped off the cornice and landed at the foot of the stairs, where a cross on the ground commemorates this sad incident. Curiously, the old legends related to the unfinished tower of San Martín feature one that declared that anyone that tried to finish the tower would die.
The square’s present-day appearance is due to a construction project in the mid-twentieth century that demolished the remains of the fort, extended the square and made the façade of San Martín more prominent; the Gothic stone cross was also brought here from the village of Ponte Nafonso at that time.
Other squares were erected close to this one, serving as meeting places from a social point of view, as well as for business purposes, namely Praza da Constitución, Fanequeira and Cantón.