Costa da Morte
coastal area in Galicia, Spain
Costa da Morte (Galician: [ˈkɔstɐ ðɐ ˈmɔɾtɪ]; "Coast of Death") is a part of the Galician coast. The most common definition of the Costa da Morte encompasses Cape Finisterre to Malpica, though broader definitions might extend from Muros to A Coruña.
Toponymy
The Costa da Morte received its name from the numerous shipwrecks along its treacherous rocky shore, exposed directly to the Atlantic Ocean. One of the most widely reported was that of the English torpedo cruiser HMS Serpent in 1890, which resulted in the deaths of 173 of its 176 crew members. The area also suffered one of the worst oil spills in history, caused by the sinking of the MV Prestige in 2002.
Although shipwrecks had occurred since ancient times, they became more frecuent in the 19th century as Atlantic maritime trade, particularly from the United Kingdom, increased. The name first appeared in a 1904 article published in the Galician newspaper El Noroeste, which drew attention to a series of shipwrecks that had occurred along the coast in previous decades. Less than a month after the article was published, another shipwreck made headlines across the country, and references to the ‘Coast of Death’ soon became commonplace.
Geography
The coast is situated at the north-western corner of the Iberian Peninsula, within the province of A Coruña. It comprises the historical regions (comarcas) of Bergantiños, Terra de Soneira, and Fisterra.
The public source identifies “Costa da Morte” as coastal area in Galicia, Spain. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Costa, Morte and coastal.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1136401. Authority coordinates are 43.100, -9.100. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1890, 2002 and 1904.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Costa da Morte” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.