Sobroso Castle is a medieval castle in the village of Vilasobroso

Vilasobroso, Mondariz

Vilasobroso is a village in the southwest of Galicia, Spain. It is both a parish within the municipality of Mondariz, known as San Martiño de Vilasobroso, and an Entidad local menor. As an Entidad local menor it is only one of nine administrative divisions directly below a municipality in the...

 in Galicia, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

.

Location

The castle is located in Vilasobroso, a village in the municipality of Mondariz

Mondariz

Mondariz is a town and municipality in the province of Pontevedra in Galicia, Spain.-Parishes:The municipality of Mondariz is formed by 12 parroquias...

, belonging to the comarca

Comarca

A comarca is a traditional region or local administrative division found in parts of Spain, Portugal, Panama, Nicaragua, and Brazil. The term is derived from the term marca, meaning a "march, mark", plus the prefix co- meaning "together, jointly".The comarca is known in Aragonese as redolada and...

 of O Condado

O Condado

O Condado is a comarca in the Galician Province of Pontevedra. The overall population of this local region is 40,192 .-Municipalities:As Neves, Mondariz, Mondariz-Balneario, Salvaterra do Miño and Ponteareas....

. It sits on Landín Hill, with views over Vilasobroso and the Condado valley, right up to the Portuguese border. Due to its strategic position, the castle was known as "the key of the Kingdom of Galicia

Kingdom of Galicia

The Kingdom of Galicia was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Founded by Suebic king Hermeric in the year 409, the Galician capital was established in Braga, being the first kingdom which...

".

Etymology

The name of the Castle, and the village itself, comes from the Latin SUBEROSUM, in reference to the 'sobreiras', quercus suber or cork

Cork Oak

Quercus suber, commonly called the Cork Oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section Quercus sect. Cerris. It is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses, such as cork flooring. It is native to southwest Europe and northwest Africa.It grows to up to 20 m,...

 trees that once surrounded it.

History

The castle was restored from its ruinous state thanks to the efforts of local journalist Alejo Carrera Muñoz, who in 1923 bought the ruins of the castle from the Count of Torre Cedeira for the sum of 5,000 pesetas. He carried out the restoration work single-handedly, without any help from local authorities, until his death in 1967. In 1981, the neighbouring municipality of Ponteareas purchased the castle from Don Alejo's only child, Zita Teresa Carrera Ferreira, for 30 million pesetas. From 1995 onwards, the local council began their own restoration work on the castle.

It is currently houses an ethnographic museum.

External links

• Official site (in Spanish)