Castro Fortress, Vigo, Spain - SpottingHistory.com

The Fortaleza del Castro is a hilltop fortress in Vigo built in 1665 during the Portuguese Restoration War in order to protect the city from the continuous raids by the British Royal Navy, allies of Portugal.

Built on the hill of the same name, the defensive system of the city consisted of the fortresses of Castro and San Sebastián and the now disappeared city wall. The city wall had an irregular shape due to the orography of the city, it was constructed by the Engineer Colonel Fernando de Gourannanbergue and maestre de campo Diego Arias Taboada to link the two fortresses. Despite this effort to provide security to the city, documents from that time say that this defensive system was ineffective as it could not impede landings further along the coast.

After several attempts to improve the defenses of the city, Vigo was looted again by British navy on the 23-24 October 1702 during Battle of Vigo Bay at the War of the Spanish Succession.

In 1809, the fortress was occupied by the French army during Peninsular War; on 28 March that year the fortress was reconquered following an uprising by people of Vigo, because of the city was given the honorific title of 'the faithful, loyal and courageous city of Vigo' the following year.

Nowadays the fortress is one of the preferred sites for people to take a walk in Vigo, because his beautiful gardens, open spaces, fonts and also the privileged views.

References:

Wikipedia

Castles and fortifications in Spain

User Reviews

Neteja Serveis (2 years ago)
I don't used to came arrond, because it hertz so much painfool it is...

K M A Samad (2 years ago)
What a beautiful place of Galicia. I love the place.

Maruxa Gesto Rodríguez (2 years ago)
The quiet morning and the views. Lovely

Lorna Davison (3 years ago)
Fog on a December rainy day made this place at once mystical and reverent. Not many visitors. Be very careful when backing into the parking spots against the hillside. There is a fairly deep trough that water runs in around the hillside. It could damage your car if you back in too far. Got some great shots of the hillside itself as views were not available. A rare thing indeed for a traveler who loves unique light.

Jim Mannoia (3 years ago)
Beautiful views! No signage to direct you to the entrance which happens to be on the opposite side from where the main steps come up. So you climb up a long final flight only to find a locked door, then have to walk back down and go around. A simple sign would have saved a long climb after already climbing literally hundreds of steps even AFTER the escalators!!

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Broch of Gurness

The Broch of Gurness is an Iron Age broch village. Settlement here began sometime between 500 and 200 BC. At the centre of the settlement is a stone tower or broch, which once probably reached a height of around 10 metres. Its interior is divided into sections by upright slabs. The tower features two skins of drystone walls, with stone-floored galleries in between. These are accessed by steps. Stone ledges suggest that there was once an upper storey with a timber floor. The roof would have been thatched, surrounded by a wall walk linked by stairs to the ground floor. The broch features two hearths and a subterranean stone cistern with steps leading down into it. It is thought to have some religious significance, relating to an Iron Age cult of the underground.

The remains of the central tower are up to 3.6 metres high, and the stone walls are up to 4.1 metres thick. The tower was likely inhabited by the principal family or clan of the area but also served as a last resort for the village in case of an attack.

The broch continued to be inhabited while it began to collapse and the original structures were altered. The cistern was filled in and the interior was repartitioned. The ruin visible today reflects this secondary phase of the broch's use.

The site is surrounded by three ditches cut out of the rock with stone ramparts, encircling an area of around 45 metres diameter. The remains of numerous small stone dwellings with small yards and sheds can be found between the inner ditch and the tower. These were built after the tower, but were a part of the settlement's initial conception. A 'main street' connects the outer entrance to the broch. The settlement is the best-preserved of all broch villages.

Pieces of a Roman amphora dating to before 60 AD were found here, lending weight to the record that a 'King of Orkney' submitted to Emperor Claudius at Colchester in 43 AD.

At some point after 100 AD the broch was abandoned and the ditches filled in. It is thought that settlement at the broch continued into the 5th century AD, the period known as Pictish times. By that time the broch was not used anymore and some of its stones were reused to build smaller dwellings on top of the earlier buildings. Until about the 8th century, the site was just a single farmstead.

In the 9th century, a Norse woman was buried at the site in a stone-lined grave with two bronze brooches and a sickle and knife made from iron. Other finds suggest that Norse men were buried here too.

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