Castros (Spain)

The castro is a fortified village that began to be inhabited from the 6th century BC, lacking streets of right angles and full of construction almost always circular.

The castros were protected by one or more pits, parapets and walls that bordered the inhabited precinct, which may have in its accesses a torreón, which controlled the entryways to itself or another strategic location.

In times of conflict, the people who lived in open field moved to these strategically located buildings to ensure their safety.

Its situation on the territory compared to other castros suggests that there was a definite strategy when choosing its location, allowing the communication by signals between them as a defensive network.

The maximum flowering time was between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC and show greater business contact with the outside of the south than the north, and the coastal than the inland.

At the end of the century, coinciding with the final phase of the Roman conquest, some with signs of destruction of the walls and in some cases immediate reoccupation.

The Castro villages tend to be constructed in cleared hills, rocky headlands or peninsulas that stretch into the sea, which provides visibility, defense and the contour domain.

Sometimes there is a kind of additions, the antecastros, which is also surrounded by walls but do not harbor houses, so it is assumed that these were intended for animals or orchards.

In addition to natural defenses, there are structures of three types: The most common is the absence of urban organization.

The essential element of a house is the home, that in the change of era was located at the center and was made of slate or clay and by the end of the 1st century it shifted to one side and was, in some cases, with shingles.