| Technical difficulty | Intermediate; Circular trail |
| Type of route | MTB and hiking |
| Points of interest | Landscape, ethnography and archaeology |
| Duration | 2 hours |
| Total distance | 4.69 km |
Castrexo de Vilela
This trail starts from Cima de Vila and runs through a lush oak grove. It joins two important vestiges of the Castro culture: the Castro da Croa, from where you go up to the Pena Maior fort, where the Limia Valley dominates; and the peaks of the Sierra de Xurés. Vegetation, heritage and landscapes blend harmoniously to offer the hiker a perfect setting to switch off and enjoy nature.
A castro is a Celtic fortified town, usually pre-Roman, although there are later examples that lasted until the Middle Ages in Europe, and are typical of the late Bronze Age and Iron Age. They are frequently found in the northwest Iberian peninsula, with the Castro culture, and on the Meseta with the Cogotas culture.
To place yourself in the Castro world, you have to imagine thousands of towns crowning the hills of our land, protected by enormous walls; distributed over current Galicia, northern Portugal and western Asturias; this geostrategic model allowed the rural Galician population to establish itself.
It was not a uniform and linear culture governed by a state headquarters or organisation, but rather a multicultural phenomenon with abundant political systems, divinities, linguistic varieties and commercial relationships in constant contact with Celts, Iberians, Greeks and Atlantic Fisterrans.
