DryStoneGarden

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Castro de Coaña

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.

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