What could be the first known photograph of A Coruña was taken in 1858 by the Irish photographer John Joscelyn Coghill, one of the founders of the Royal Hibernian Photographic Society of Ireland, who took it during a trip to Spain, and is in the Getty Museum in Los Angeles (United States). The discovery It was discovered among the funds of the American museum by the Galician Marisa Rey, a fan of the search for old images of Galicia. The image shows a man dressed in traditional Galician costume and leaning against a lamppost. Next to him can be seen several cows and oxen. Behind the man can be seen a white house with balconies and a tiled roof. Coruña or Santiago de Compostela? There are discrepancies between historians and professors regarding the exact place where the photograph was taken, although in the lower part of the image is written “Coruña”, there is no certainty that it belongs to the city, and it is believed that it may belong to the city of Santiago de Compostela and even to some area of the Rías Baixas. After several investigations following the discovery, the architect and professor emeritus of the Escola Técnica Superior de Arquitectura da Coruña, Xosé Lois Martínez confirmed that the photograph was taken in the current Avenida de la Marina (A Coruña). On the right side of the photograph is the house of the Marquis do Carballo and on the left, the Hospital of Charity, both buildings were demolished.
What could be the first known photograph of A Coruña was taken in 1858 by the Irish photographer John Joscelyn Coghill, one of the founders of the Royal Hibernian Photographic Society of Ireland, who took it during a trip to Spain, and is in the Getty Museum in Los Angeles (United States). The discovery It
