Inside Portugal’s Ancient Hillfort City: Citânia de Santa Luzia

[00:00:01]The city of Viana do Castelo has a commanding  presence at the mouth of the Lima River.

[00:00:07]You have a beautiful view of it here on  the mount of Santa Luzia with an amazing, gorgeous basilica at the top of it.

[00:00:18]But I’m not here to see this 20th  century church, although it is gorgeous.

[00:00:22]I’m here because this spot has been important  to human beings for over two thousand years.

[00:00:31]Right behind this basilica  is an Iron Age hillfort.

[00:00:37]Let’s explore!

[00:00:53]The Citânia (or fortified settlement) of Santa Luzia is in the far northwest of  Portugal, in the Minho region.

[00:01:04]It’s just outside the city of Viana do  Castelo, on the mount or hill of Santa Luzia.

[00:01:12]The walled settlement covers the top of the hill,  behind the hotel (or “pousada”) and the church.

[00:01:21]There are a few signs directing you to the Citânia, but when you turn away from the amazing  views the only thing indicating an entrance is  the empty grey façade of the welcome centre.

[00:01:36]The huge sliding door has the name  on it, but you have to look hard!

[00:01:42]After you pay your €2 admission,  you’re free to wander the grounds.

[00:01:52]There are no information boards on the grounds, but helpful guides are available in  several languages at the welcome centre.

[00:02:04]Entering the site, its nature becomes clear.

[00:02:08]This is a fortified settlement: a  kind of proto-city on a hilltop, made up of many stone houses  surrounded by defensive walls.

[00:02:18]This is one of many such settlements in the area, and Santa Luzia is one of the  largest and better-known examples.

[00:02:31]Here in the north of Portugal, there are  many hillforts dating back from the Iron Age.

[00:02:38]They are called “castros,” from the Castro Culture  of the Iron Age here.

[00:02:45]This is called a “citânia.”

[00:02:47]A citânia is very similar to a castro – it’s a  fortified hillfort – but on a much bigger scale.

[00:02:58]This is no simple hillfort.

[00:03:02]This is a city that was built in the  Iron Age in the last millennium BC, between 1000 and a few hundred BC.

[00:03:17]These structures behind me, that  you can walk around and see, are the foundations of  houses that people lived in.

[00:03:28]Many of them are circular, some of them are  more elliptical, there are rectangular ones.

[00:03:37]Chances are they had many different purposes.

[00:03:42]We know some of the information  about this, but not everything.

[00:03:48]Some of these citânias and some of  the castros were reused by the Romans, so they have a longer history  than a few thousand years.

[00:04:01]Others are left here as a testament to  the Iron Age civilizations of Portugal that were rich and thriving  here before the Romans arrived.

[00:04:15]This citânia was known since at  least the seventeenth century, and various archaeological excavations  through the 19th and 20th centuries exposed the foundations of scores of houses  as well as sections of the protective walls.

[00:04:34]Recently, metal and wooden walkways have been  installed to allow visitors to see  the site from various perspectives.

[00:04:42]Please do use the walkways: it may make your visit slightly less adventurous but it protects this National Monument from damage!

[00:04:54]Some people have commented and said with this  hat I’m trying to be another Indiana Jones.

[00:05:01]I’d love to have Harrison Ford’s  good looks (and his millions!), but honestly I’m not trying to  pretend to be anything here.

[00:05:09]I wear a hat like this for a very simple reason.

[00:05:12]I don’t want to be Indiana Jones: I’m just trying not to be Sunburned Scalp Iglar!

[00:05:23]As you explore what was an enormous early city, it can be difficult to picture what the settlement  would have looked like originally, and what life would have been like for the people living there.

[00:05:35]To help visualize these ancient stones as a vibrant city, it’s well worth visiting Viana  do Castelo’s archaeological museum, the Casa dos Nichos, in the heart of the old town.

[00:05:49]Admission there is free and  there’s a small but excellent display explaining life in the area  from the Stone Age to the Roman period.

[00:06:02]There are artefacts found in Santa  Luzia and other citânias and castros, and models and illustrations to  give life to the ancient world.

[00:06:20]You can see that the Iron Age circular  huts would have been thatched stone houses, with a partially enclosed and  covered verandah or atrium.

[00:06:33]Life went on in and around the houses, where hundreds of people would engage in daily  activities such as grinding grain into flour, or spinning wool into yarn  to then weave into clothing.

[00:06:50]Most houses were grouped in communal or family  clusters, with walls and roads between them.

[00:06:58]Other houses have different  shapes: elliptical or rectangular.

[00:07:03]This is evidence of the long  occupation of this settlement, which was in use throughout the many centuries  before the Roman invasion but also afterwards.

[00:07:14]The indigenous Castro Culture  was co-opted and modified into more Romanized urban settlements, or “oppida.”

[00:07:24]The fortifications also may have  been adapted during Roman times, but the fortified nature of the settlement  certainly dates back to the pre-Roman Iron Age.

[00:07:34]Defense would have been key for this site, with stronger walls facing the  more gently sloping approaches, and multiple rings of walls.

[00:07:45]The central area of the citânia also reveals  an interesting aspect to the construction: there are many with a distinctive  spiral or helix construction technique, with stones carefully shaped  to fit closely together.

[00:08:01]This seems to be a type of masonry that  is called “cyclopean” or “polygonal.”

[00:08:08]This technique seems to have originated in Greece and possibly had its final use  here on the Iberian peninsula.

[00:08:22]You can see that this citânia or settlement  would have been enormous in its day.

[00:08:28]In fact, it would have been much bigger than what we see  today because of the development  of the pousada or the hotel here which has taken over much of the land  that the citânia would have covered.

[00:08:45]This citânia would have extended all  the way to the tip of the mountain so that it could see out to the mouth of  the Lima River and out to the ocean.

[00:08:56]These were an ocean-going people.

[00:08:58]They had contacts all around Europe.

[00:09:01]Again, this was a civilization here  in Portugal before the Romans invaded.

[00:09:07]When the Romans came over, they found  these kinds of cities or citânias all over: especially in the north, but throughout  the area that is now Portugal.

[00:09:21]It’s estimated that only a third of  the total area has been excavated.

[00:09:27]Some sections of the citânia were destroyed  by construction of the hotel, as well as the church,  and the access roads, while there may still be more buried in the land underneath the trees.

[00:09:40]But a visit to the Citânia de Santa  Luzia reveals an impressive glimpse into the rich and vibrant Iron Age culture that  lasted hundreds if not thousands of years, both before the Roman invasion  and well into the occupation.

[00:09:58]This site is an important example of ancient  indigenous Portuguese culture and heritage.

[00:10:07]I hope you’ve enjoyed this visit  to the Citânia de Santa Luzia.

[00:10:10]As always, please “Like” and subscribe!  I’m going to be visiting more castros and citânias - and other prehistoric  sites - all around the country.

[00:10:19]Leave a comment down below: I’d love to hear your  thoughts about this or any other prehistoric site.

[00:10:25]And as always, there’s more information  on my website, PrehistoricPortugal.com Thanks for watching!