Sobroso Castle is a medieval castle in the village of Vilasobroso in Galicia. It sits on Landín Hill, overlooking 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". The name of the Castle, and the village itself, comes from the Latin SUBEROSUM, in reference to the 'sobreiras', Quercus suber or cork trees that once surrounded it.
Sobroso Castle was built in order to control an essential crossroad between the southern Galicia inlands, the sea and Tui city in the south. It is located in mount Landín: a place with great visual control and of difficult access. It was part of a defensive system which, together with other fortresses like Soutomaior, Tebra or Torre de Fornelos, protected the “tierra de Toroño” or Turonium lands. Turonium was made up of the king lands inside Tui bishopric jurisdiction. The “Historia Compostelana”, narrating the events that happened to Diego Gelmírez —first Bishop of Santiago de Compostela— tells us how Queen Urraca was besieged inside the castle in 1117. Her own sister, Lady Theresa of Portugal, together with Lord Pedro Froilaz, Count of Traba, encircled the castle and forced the queen to run away to León. Legend says that she could escape thanks to an underground tunnel leading to the nearby Tea River. This episode in the struggle for power between Urraca and her heir Alfonso —future King Alfonso VII the Emperor— is a crucial moment in the history of the castle.
Visit a castle of characters, secrets and legends that has a lot to tell. A castle that writes a new page in its history and of which you can be a part.