Castros in Portugal

A castro is a fortified settlement, usually pre-Roman, associated with the Celtic culture.

The word castro comes from the Latin castrum, which means "hill fort".

The Northwestern Castro Network (Rede de Castros do Noroeste), was established in 2015 grouping the most important sites in Northern Portugal as founding members out of 2,000 archaeological sites: Despite its name, the network includes, for the time being, only Portuguese partners, and froze the idea to world heritage candidacy to UNESCO, given the disparities in archaeological research, and the necessity to create visitation and promotion conditions.

This is especially true in the municipality of Vila do Conde, which holds Cividade de Bagunte, one of the largest sites, along with seven other castros.

The Vila do Conde city hall managed to obtain its Cividade's land area only in 2015, after 60 years of negotiations and legal confrontation.