DryStoneGarden

The other Celtic hill-fort I checked out was Citania de Briteiros in Portugal near Guimaraes. Different stone than Castro de Coaña, a dry-laid granite with a gritty gtexture. Rectangular structures follow the contours of the hillside and in the more level areas the structures are circular. It’s a little more interesting as a site than Castro de Coaña; the topography is more complex, there are some beautiful oaks mixed in with the ruins, and some of the oaks have been harvested for their cork, a detail which never stopped fascinating me during my time in Portugal.

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In Spain and Portugal I visited a couple of pre-Roman hill-fort ruins. This one is Castro de Coaña in Asturias near the coast. I think it’s considered Celtic, though I’m not sure every archeologist or historian uses that term. In any case, really nice site. I liked the stonework and the way the circular structures make an integrated whole. I don’t really have a lot to say about the stonework; classic double-skinned walls, a slatey stone held together with some kind of lime.

I’m fascinated by the way the circular forms fit together; it’s sort of the opposite of what landscape architecture training encourages these days. Danish landscape architect Carl Theodor Sorenson did this with his oval gardens in Copenhagen in the late 1940’s but I don’t know of anything more recent.

I’ve read that this is the best of the castros in Asturias, which might be true, I don’t know. It’s definitely worth a visit and I’ll check out more of them if I ever go back to Asturias. I visited one in Portugal, Citania de Briteiros, that I’ll post next. They’re both pretty great.