Village
Riotorto is a concello of about 1,200 inhabitants with its capital at As Rodrigas, in the Meira comarca, famous for its ferreiros (ironsmiths): since the 16th century its hydraulic hammers forged scythes and knives, and today the Ruta do Ferro runs past these works along the river, with the mazo da Fraga restored as a museum. The territory preserves remains of the castro da Coroa and the so-called brazal de Riotorto, a bronze piece from the 3rd to 1st centuries BC now in the Museo Provincial de Lugo. During the Middle Ages it belonged to the diocese of Mondoñedo and to the monastery of Meira, which held property here between the 12th and 16th centuries, and through the parish of Órrea, of medieval origin, passed the Camino de Santiago coming from Asturias.
Monument
The church of San Pedro de Riotorto gives its name to the place where it stands, in the parish of Riotorto, capital of the Lugo concello of the same name, in the comarca of Meira; that place, called San Pedro after the presence of the old church, appeared uninhabited in the 2024 census. Included in the catalogues of Galician heritage, the church presides over a concello of eight parishes and eighty-five population entities spread across the valley of the upper Eo.
Monument
The former monastic church of Santa Comba de Órrea, in the parish through which the Camino de Santiago coming from Asturias entered; it preserves a baptismal font that ranks among its most valuable pieces.
Monument
A hermitage in the village of Espasande de Arriba that houses a carving of the Virgin from the twelfth or thirteenth century, one of the Romanesque sculptures preserved in this eastern corner of the province of Lugo.
Monument
A chapel in the village of Folgueirúa, in the parish of Galegos, one of the small village hermitages that structured local devotion in a municipality of extremely dispersed settlement.
Monument
A hermitage dedicated to the apostle in the place known as A Muxueira, a dedication that recalls the passage through these lands of pilgrims coming down from Asturias towards Compostela through the interior of Lugo.
Nature
An Iron Age fortified settlement where the armlet of Riotorto appeared, a bronze piece dated between the third and first centuries BC that is now kept in the Provincial Museum of Lugo.
Curiosity
A bronze bracelet found at the Castro da Coroa and dated between the third and first centuries BC; it is kept in the Provincial Museum of Lugo and is the best-known archaeological piece to have come out of this municipality.
Curiosity
Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the concello filled with forge hammers and ironworks linked to the mining of the area, a water-powered iron industry that marked the economy and the landscape of the valley for generations.
Curiosity
At several points in the municipal district Jurassic fossil remains outcrop, a geological rarity in Galicia that makes Riotorto a reference point for the study of the bedrock of eastern Lugo.
Activity
The Camino de Santiago route that came down from Asturias towards Compostela passed through the parish of A Órrea, an inland branch far less travelled than the coastal variants but documented since the Middle Ages.
Monument
A small rural hermitage of a single nave and a bellcote, raised beside the road in one of the eight parishes of the concello; it forms part of the string of chapels that dot the iron-working valleys of Riotorto.
Curiosity
A traditional settlement catalogued as a singular ensemble, with rubble masonry houses, hórreos and wooden corridors that show what the rural habitat of these valleys was like before the abandonment of the countryside.
Curiosity
Another of the singular ensembles of the concello, grouped around the old monastic parish of Santa Comba, with paved paths, boundary walls and farm buildings still standing.
Activity
A show devoted to the traditional forging of the concello, where sickles, knives and tools are still made by hand; it includes forge demonstrations and direct sale by the blacksmiths of the Ferreiravella valley.
Historical milestone
Between the 16th and 17th centuries, mining and ironworking sustained the economy of Riotorto, whose place-name Ferreiravella recalls those hydraulic hammer forges; the blacksmith's trade has survived there to this day along the Ruta do Ferro.
Food and drink
A livestock fair in the place of Augaxosa at which the cattle of the area are traded and slaughter and garden produce are sold; it keeps the format of the rural fairs of the interior of Lugo.
Curiosity
Between the 16th and 17th centuries forge hammers and ironworks operated here, fed by local mining and by the force of the water. Their remains are the finest testimony to the traditional ironmaking of the Lugo mountains.