The Iron Age Castro de Cossourado is situated in the middle of the modern day village of Forte da Cidade. It is part of Paredes de Coura region, on Salgosa mountain range, on the north side of the river Coura, dominating a large open area. This used to be an important north-south corridor between the Douro and Minho regions.
The Castro is about 10 hectares large and was inhabited only between the 5th and 2nd century BC. There have been no later occupiers. Two defensive walls surround the residential area when on the west side where the slope is less steep, there is even a third line. Some buildings were used for residence, storage, keeping of animals and other goods. The society here was probably based on agriculture with traces of activities like weaving, production of ceramics, fishing and metallurgy.
Remaining buildings are of irregular shape, but as usual grouped in nuclei with a wall around each one of them. One of these nuclei, with two buildings has been reconstructed and is part of the archaeological open air museum to present the ancient “castrejo” past.
