Archeology.

During the Roman occupation of Galicia, Cangas and the area belonged to the convent Bracarense Morrazo (with capital in Braga) and indigenous people who inhabited these lands between the river Lérez Vigo estuary and was included in the tribe of the Helleni .

These Indians lived in villages that were called castro circular or elliptical walls made of rocks and dirt in high places, inside there are houses and villages of Roman and pre-Roman times.

In Cangas highlight castros O Castelo in Darbo, Liboreiro in Coiro and O Facho in HIO.

These forts were found Roman pottery and Roman order, dedicated to indigenous gods.

Of all of them deserves special attention be unique not only in Galicia, but also in the Iberian Peninsula "O Facho in HIO."

At the top of Mount Facho José Suárez and archaeologists discovered Thomas Schattner oldest pilgrimage shrine of Galicia. Over a hundred centuries of Roman altars III and IV that planted atop Mount galaica honored an enigmatic deity called Bero Breo. It is the first such shrine located on the Peninsula, with the parallels that exist only in other parts of the European Atlantic coast.

From Roman times is the village called Pipín found in three pools and beach Pintens who engaged in salting fish.

"O Facho" in Hío

The Monte do Facho hosted over centuries different expressions of life in the region.From the tenth century BC to the seventh century BC, there was a village on the eastern slope of barely have information except its exceptional size. From the sixth century BC arises Galician castro, fortified settlement will continue until the first century BC From this we can still see part of the walls, the moat, the stones that made their homes and now cover the mountain slopes, landfills on the fringes of the town, or the actual topography of the mountain which derives both from the same building as the town's natural setting.

Later, a shrine erected on the summit will gather the old beliefs of those who lived in the fort to give them, along II-IV centuries AD, a new character, now marked by the process of assimilation of culture America in the region of the Roman Empire called Gallaecia. Finally in the eighteenth century building a coastal lookout for military purposes, which survives the gatehouse.

The votive altars, altar in Latin, are the most significant findings of the excavations on Mount Facho. Its function was to offer to God a small monument that includes a votive inscription of his condition, the deity to which it is addressed and sometimes dedicator name and / or reasons for the offering. Examples of Monte do Facho note the interpretation made by the original models galaicos Romans. Beside few classic examples, find the reformulation in the Galician provincial environment, with variations in morphology and ornamental enrichment until later in the final stages of the sanctuary to forms far from Roman models.A process that expresses the creation of an aesthetic and symbolic identity Galician-Roman.

The sanctuary was available Berobreo hillside in an area surrounding the summit of Mt. There are remains of columns that indicate the existence of a building, but so far we know only a provision opencast altars, kneeling on the ground and in number, occupied a large part of that area. A buildup that led the trend of the monuments to be narrow and high, which is what the view would look like a "forest of interests". At the end of the existence of the sanctuary, the place is abandoned, the order will be falling and piling, sometimes fragmented, to remain so to this day.

(Source: City Council of Cangas)

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