Logbook · 6 places

What to see and do in Lubián

What to see and do in Lubián (Sanabria, Zamora): 6 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 2 Nature · 2 Curiosities

How far each place is from the centre of Lubián

Towns near Lubián

What to see in Hermisende 7.4 km · 5 places
What to see in Pías 9.5 km · 4 places
What to see in A Mezquita 12 km · 24 places
What to see in Requejo 14 km · 4 places
What to see in Porto 15 km · 6 places
What to see in Cobreros 18 km · 6 places
What to see in Pedralba de la Pradería 18 km · 4 places
What to see in A Gudiña 19 km · 18 places

Spain › Castile and León › Zamora › Sanabria › Lubián

What to see and do in Lubián

Lubián
Village
Lubián is a municipality in the province of Zamora (Castile and León), in Alta Sanabria, next to Ourense and close to Portugal, where its inhabitants use both Spanish and Galician. Its municipal area, with rugged terrain between the Sierra Segundera to the north and the Gamoneda to the south, forms the Lubián valley, watered by the Tuela river, reached from Requejo via the Padornelo pass, at 1,360 metres, and left towards Galicia via the Canda pass. The village, at 1,065 metres, is the last municipality on the Mozarabic-Sanabrian Way in Zamora province. With 296 inhabitants, it retains houses of granite masonry, with a stable below and a wooden gallery above, the sanctuary of the Virgen de la Tuiza and the Astur hillfort of As Muradellas, from the 3rd century BC, both designated Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection).
The sanctuary of the Virgen de la Tuiza
Monument
Declared a bien de interés cultural, it holds the image of the Virgen de las Nieves, patron of the Alta Sanabria; its pilgrimage festival on the last weekend of September brings together the villages on both sides of the border.
The hillfort of As Muradellas
Nature
The castro (hillfort) of As Muradellas is a deserted Iron Age settlement located in the municipal district of Lubián (Zamora), on a promontory formed by a meander of the río Tuela; it occupies high ground between the Sierra Segundera and the Sierra Gamoneda. It was inhabited between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC, with occupation in the 3rd century BC, probably by an Astur population devoted mainly to livestock farming, in a climate somewhat colder and wetter than today's. Its most distinctive feature is the defensive system on the eastern flank, the only side with easy access: a field of driven stones to hinder cavalry, and two parallel ditches, in addition to walls. Since November 1994 it has been protected as a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), with the category of archaeological zone. The municipality, with six hamlets, today has 296 residents.
El cortello dos lobos
Curiosity
El Cortello dos Lobos, in Lubián, is a stone ethnological complex built as a trap to capture wolves alive: the animal would enter, drawn by bait, and find itself shut in, unable to leap the wall. Lubián, like the rest of the Sanabria comarca, was wolf country par excellence, and its people devised various kinds of such traps over the course of history, among them the chorco, the cerrado lobero and the nevera. The lack of documentation and its folk character leave the origin of the cortello uncertain; it is thought to be several centuries old, though it is not known whether it was built by local people themselves or by transhumant shepherds. It is now restored, though it has been out of use since the mid-20th century.
The Tuela River between two mountain ranges
Nature
The Tuela and its tributaries, the río Pedro and the río Leira, cross a municipal district wedged between the Sierra Segundera to the north and the Sierra Gamoneda to the south, with barely 3.13 inhabitants per square kilometre.
The Galician language of Upper Sanabria
Curiosity
Lubián is a bilingual municipality: its residents habitually use both Castilian and Galician, the legacy of a border position that in 1639 was documented within the Adelantamiento of the Kingdom of León.