Logbook · 11 places

What to see and do in As Nogais

What to see and do in As Nogais (Ancares, Lugo): 11 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 3 Monuments · 5 Nature · 1 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of As Nogais

Towns near As Nogais

What to see in Cervantes 5.7 km · 15 places
What to see in Becerreá 7.7 km · 13 places
What to see in Pedrafita do Cebreiro 12 km · 14 places
What to see in Triacastela 14 km · 9 places
What to see in Baralla 16 km · 12 places
What to see in Navia de Suarna 18 km · 15 places
What to see in Balboa 18 km · 2 places
What to see in Vega de Valcarce 21 km · 3 places

Spain › Galicia › Lugo › Ancares › As Nogais

What to see and do in As Nogais

As Nogais
Village
As Nogais is a municipality of around 900 inhabitants spread over 112 square kilometres on the southern slope of the Ancares and the headwaters of the Navia river, in Lugo province. It was a required passage on the old royal road to Castile, where the steep climb to Piedrafita began, and this gateway into Galicia was defended by the medieval tower of Doncos and the castles of Doiras and Valcarce; the tower, a medieval possession of the Valcarce family and later of the Count of Ayala, was already recorded as abandoned in 1603. During the Peninsular War French troops burned Doncos, and in 1835 its residents formed a volunteer band against the Carlists. It was officially called Nogales and later Los Nogales until it recovered its Galician name, As Nogais, in 1985.
Tower of Doncos
Monument
Doncos tower is what remains of the old fortress of Santo Agostiño, declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 1994, sited atop a hill at 620 metres above sea level, on the strategic pass from El Bierzo into Galicia along which the Roman road from Braga to Astorga once ran. It is a square tower of slate masonry, eight metres to a side, with three floors and a basement hewn into the rock, surrounded by the remains of a walled enclosure with the ruins of a cylindrical turret. It belonged to the estate of the Valcárce family, and in the 14th century it was owned by García Rodríguez de Valcarce; it passed to the Count of Ayala in the 15th century and to Fernando de Toledo in the 17th, by which time, in 1603, it was already considered abandoned, and it was left devastated during the French invasion. It commanded the pass towards the Pedrafita mountain gap above the Navia valley.
Hillfort of Vilabol
Nature
Pre-Roman settlement in a concello of 112 square kilometres that also preserves the castros of Vilaesteva and Quintá, lined up along the natural corridor that crosses the range.
Corvo Peak
Nature
Summit of 1,387 metres rising above the Navia valley at the southeastern end of the Serra dos Ancares, whose elevations along this stretch range between one thousand and two thousand metres.
Piornal and Rañadoiro ranges
Nature
Two mountain alignments exceeding 1,300 metres that close off the concello, covered in heathland and high pastures and crossed by the streams that feed the river of Valdeparada.
Ponte Naviae
Monument
In this concello lies the possible Roman mansio of Ponte Naviae, one of the stops on the road that linked Bracara Augusta with Asturica Augusta, crossing the river Navia through the mountains.
Church of San Pedro de Quintá
Monument
The parish church of Quintá, one of the nine parishes of As Nogais; it stands in the valley through which the Roman road between Braga and Astorga ran, marked here by the mansio of Ponte Naviae.
Serra Travesa
Nature
A ridge in the municipal district of As Nogais which, together with the sierras of Pintinidoira and Chan de Pereira, forms the western sector of the Ancares massif, dominated by the pico do Corvo, at 1,387 metres.
Hillfort of Vilaesteva
Nature
A fortified settlement in the municipal district of As Nogais which, with those of Vilabol and Quintá, marks the natural corridor by which the Roman road climbed from the valley of the Navia towards the mountain pass.
The abandonment of the tower of Doncos
Historical milestone
In 1603 the fortress that watched the crossing towards El Bierzo already appeared uninhabited, a sign of the decline of the seigneurial mountain towers once their defensive function was lost.
Empanada Fair and other products of the Ancares
Food and drink
A fair in As Nogais devoted to the wood-oven empanada and to the rest of the mountain larder, with stalls of cured meats, honey and cheese arriving from the neighbouring concellos of the sierra.