SantigosoHill fort of O Castelo Pequeno
To the southeast of Santigoso is located the top of the site, a fabulous viewpoint over the village. On a lower level located to the South we find a huge fortified settlement datable to the final phase of the Iron Age (II BC - I AD) which corresponds to the final phase of the culture of the Galician people. This fortified village is formed by three enclosures that present good natural defences, except in the northern sector, where its inhabitants erected a field of sinking stones that made it difficult to attack.
Castelo Pequeno is located on an acropolis, a hill crowned by a natural outcrop of granite or "castelo", at 1254 m. of altitude, located in the middle of the Azoreira mountain range. It is the highest and most visible fort in the whole region. From the north, where the so-called large settlement, Castelo Grande (1,249 m) is located, its visual domain is vast, controlling not only the walk ways and valleys da Mezquita, but also a good part of the Terra das Frieiras, part of the Portuguese lands of Tras os Montes and Zamora from Lubián and Hermisende.
The site where it is located is an eroded surface of high mountain with many outcrops of granite in the whole area, emaciated and not very accessible, with nutrient poor soils and no river, only subsidiary streams from the river of Cádvos. The fort is located in an area suitable for livestock and grazing, but it does not seem to be a settlement dedicated only to agricultural economy, when we take into account its enormous size and the extensive visual control it has over the territory.
Each of the three enclosures is levelled on strong embankments and walled with a stony granite wall, which in the croa (the upper enclosure), despite the pillage, the collapses reach a height of about 10 m. In the third enclosure, facing the southeast, the wall is 4.30 m. of width and it looks like a constructive model in horizontal sections of polygonal apparatus filled with masonry, similar to one of the great hill forts of the bordering region of Monterrei.
One of the biggest in Galicia
The "Small Castle" of Santigoso, that measures between 9.5 and 10 Ha is, together with San Cibrán de Lás, one of the largest forts of Galicia after Santa Tegra (20 Ha). During the Iron Age the average number of inhabitants of the settlements of the northwest peninsular was about 200 people and little more than 1 Ha. Strategically located, each town was built in isolation to not intervene in the development of other fortified villages and avoid thus the conflict for the control of natural resources. The small hill forts started to disappear with the arrival of the Roman troops.
The great Hill forts of the Northwest emerge like this from Castelo Pequeno, which could be the result of the union of several small communities that sought to form a larger political entity with which to face the new reality.
