Thanks to Roman classical sources, we know that the Barbanza region was inhabited by the Celtici people, who were divided into Praestamarici (from before the river Tambre) and Supertamarici (from beyond the Tambre). The name of this people was preserved throughout the Roman period and the Early Middle Ages, to the point that the current archpriestship of the region is called Posmarcos de Abaixo. Our parish of Posmarcos is the only one that still preserves the ancestral Iron Age name in its toponymy.
The Neixón archaeological complex, formed by two hillforts (Neixón Grande and Neixón Pequeno), is one of the most studied sites in Galicia. Excavations revealed a long occupation sequence from the Bronze Age to the 8th century AD. This peninsula, now developed as an open-air museum, was an important node of exchange with the Mediterranean world during the Iron Age.
The hillfort of A Cidá, located in the municipality of Ribeira, is an Iron Age settlement with remains of circular structures and an impressive defensive system. From the top you can enjoy views over the Ría de Arousa. Its occupation is very old, around the 7th and 6th centuries BC, during the Early Iron Age.
The Baroña hillfort is one of the most spectacular in Galicia, situated on a small rocky peninsula over the Atlantic. Its walls and circular dwellings stand out against the sea, offering an unforgettable image of Castro culture. Although many details of the excavations remain unknown, the hillfort's current appearance corresponds to the alterations of its last phase, at the end of the Iron Age. Like most of the Barbanza hillforts, it was no longer inhabited (at least not in the way it had been until then) in Roman times.
Croa de Posmarcos is not an isolated site. It forms part of a dense network of fortified settlements that, during the Iron Age, systematically occupied the Barbanza massif and its surroundings. This mountainous peninsula, wedged between the rías of Arousa and of Muros and Noia, holds one of the highest densities of hillforts in all of Galicia, a sign of the strategic importance and economic dynamism of the territory more than two thousand years ago.
The hillforts you can visit nearby help us understand how that world worked: the visual control between one and the next, the relationship with the coast and its marine resources, the differences between coastal and inland settlements, the importance of Atlantic trade. Each one contributes a different piece of the same mosaic.
These three hillforts —Neixón, A Cidá and Baroña— are just a selection. The Barbanza and its neighbouring districts boast dozens of documented Castro settlements, many of them still unexcavated, each with its own personality and chronology. Visiting them together helps us grasp something fundamental: hillforts never existed in isolation. Between them there were ties of neighbourhood, competition, kinship and exchange, and their inhabitants moved along paths that today we can barely guess at.
If you wish to delve deeper, the academic bibliography on Gallaecian hillforts is vast and keeps growing with every new excavation campaign, and many of these sites have information points and interpretative panels at their own accesses.
