Castro of Santa Trega

According to classical authors such as Pliny the Elder, Pomponius Mela, Appian and Ptolemy, the southwest corner of modern-day Galicia was populated by the Grovii or Grovios community, with their most important city being the Castellum Tyde or Tude (now Tui).

The archaeological findings show that the town would have had similar sized constructions; would have been peaceful and would have supported an agrarian economy with certain purchasing and commercial power (as demonstrated by the abundance of foreign products).

The vast majority of these houses are of small dimensions and sit directly on the bedrock with their walls being covered with a lime and sand mortar.

Many of the dwellings have a foyer which is considered by experts to be a sign of Mediterranean influence adapted to maintain the characteristics of indigenous construction.

In addition, embedded in the walls, cylindrical monolithic blocks of small dimensions have been found decorated with geometric shapes such as spirals, triskelions, Celtic roses, or pinwheel designs.

The site's urban planning includes a complex network of rainwater drainage channels located under the pathways, as well as sometimes on the surface, sculpted on the base rock and covered with slabs.

Proof of a human presence approximately 2,000 years prior to the settlement's construction is confirmed by the petroglyphs or rock engravings left in various locations in that area.

It is evident that these engravings have no relation to the fort, since they are a product of a society that developed 2,000 years before, during the final stage of the Galician Neolithic period.

There are examples of both indigenous ceramics, identified by their dark paste that is moulded by hand or slow wheel, and varieties of pottery typical of the Roman era.

He was the first to call it a ‘Citania’ (a fortified city) and the first to speak about the possibility of identifying the site with the mythical "Mount Medulio", where classical writers placed the legendary and heroic last Gallaecian resistance against the Roman Empire.

Between 1928 and 1933, Cayetano de Mergelina y Luna, professor at the University of Valladolid, led a series of archaeological campaigns using some of the most advanced methods at that time.