The refuge

Rocha Forte is the local version of a type of fortress known as concentric castle, designed by French crusaders to control the territory conquered in the Holy Land. Following this model, it adds and strengthens such defensive elements as concentric walls or the ward and the division of space between the walls.

After the first urban revolt against Archbishop Berenguel de Landoira, this prelate decided to rebuild and strengthen the castle to consolidate his power in the area of Santiago de Compostela. Berenguel strengthened the military architecture with a new configuration, altering the building commissioned by Xoán Arias and after the most innovative trends in the Europe of the time.

The alterations by Berenguel de Landoira in the 14th century gave the castle the shape we see today: a monumental enclosure with nine towers and a yet to be determined number of outer walls or fences. Within them, the documentation mentions the existence of a number of houses and households, amounting to a small village. Successive alterations adapted the caste to the new defensive needs brought about by the irruption of artillery, such as the construction of the lower outer rampant or barbican.

By Xurxo Constela.

The castle has a square plant of some 3500 m² with four round towers at the corners. The entrance, which faces the west, was reinforced by two further towers. It rises over a set of granitic outcrops, that were rough-hewed by stonemasons. Recent excavations have unearthed marks and clefts to cut the rock and that bear testimony to the formidable work required to construct on these rocks.

Within the castle, a staircase leads us down to small underground vaulted room. Across it, there is an ancient large door with a rounded arch that is currently blocked off. In this room, part of the outer plaster of the walls has survived. Near the southeast tower, there is a rectangular well and a hydraulic water discharge system.

The foundations of the keep have also survived. The keep crowned the castle and its defensive system. There is also clear evidence of the huge investment made to ennoble the chambers of this high-standing residence for the standards of the time: merlons, bases of columns, decorated shafts, pieces of latticework, capitals, pinnacles with plant motifs…