Logbook · 7 places

What to see and do in Baltar

What to see and do in Baltar (Limia, Ourense): 7 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 3 Nature · 2 Curiosities

How far each place is from the centre of Baltar

Church of Santa María de Texós 1.6 km

Towns near Baltar

What to see in Os Blancos 6.1 km · 4 places
What to see in Trasmiras 12 km · 4 places
What to see in Cualedro 12 km · 8 places
What to see in Xinzo de Limia 13 km · 10 places
What to see in Porqueira 13 km · 6 places
What to see in Calvos de Randín 14 km · 7 places
What to see in Vilar de Santos 16 km · 7 places
What to see in Rairiz de Veiga 18 km · 7 places

Spain › Galicia › Ourense › Limia › Baltar

What to see and do in Baltar

Baltar
Village
Baltar is a concello of around 850 inhabitants in the comarca of A Limia (Ourense), at an altitude of 823 metres, with the Serra do Larouco marking the border with Portugal to the south. Its name comes from the Latin genitive Baltarii, of Germanic origin. The locality of As Maus was part, until 1868, of the singular Couto Mixto; that year, with the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon of 1864, it was incorporated into Baltar, although the residents of Rubiás and Santiago preferred to join the concello of Calvos de Randín. Watered by the rivers Faramontaos and Salas, its economy has traditionally been based on subsistence farming, with crops of potato, rye and maize, and on raising pigs, cattle and sheep.
Church of Santa María de Texós
Monument
In this parish, beside the church, stand one of the oldest communal ovens in the municipality, a cruceiro and a peto de ánimas; Baltar brings together seven parishes between the hills of Montecelo and Boullosa, on the raia with Portugal.
Couto Mixto of Meaus
Curiosity
Meaus, now As Maus, was one of the three hamlets -together with Santiago, the territory's capital, and Rubiás- that made up the Couto Mixto, an independent micro-state in the Serra do Larouco, between Galicia and Portugal, covering 26.9 km² with a population that did not exceed a thousand inhabitants around 1862-1864. The origin of this institution is unknown; it was linked from the late Middle Ages to the castle of A Picoña and later to the House of Braganza. Its residents enjoyed asylum for those fleeing Spanish or Portuguese justice, exemption from providing soldiers and paying taxes, freedom of trade and farming, and the possibility of choosing their nationality, as well as, from the 12th century, electing their own judge every three winters. Considered anomalous and favourable to smuggling, it came under Spanish sovereignty with the Treaty of Lisbon of 1868.
Mountain range of Larouco en Baltar
Nature
A mountain ridge that closes off the concello to the south and rises above 1,300 metres in altitude, forming the natural border with Portugal; at its foot flow the Salas and Faramontaos rivers, both tributaries of the Limia. The ridge, running northeast-southwest, separates A Limia from Portugal and extends northward until it joins the Serra de San Mamede, between the depressions of A Limia and Monterrei. With gentle summits that gain height towards the south, it is made up of granite and some metamorphic rock, largely covered by scrubland and pine plantations, although it preserves areas of carballo oak woodland, among which the wood of A Rousía, in Baltar, stands out. Its highest point is the Coto Farelo, at 1,398 metres above sea level.
Salas River through Baltar
Nature
One of the two tributaries of the Limia that water the municipality, along with the Faramontaos; between the two channels lie the ruins of Saler, an old settlement in a territory marked by the old frontier of the Couto Mixto.
The border mountains in Baltar
Nature
The concello is closed to the south by granite ridges that serve as the border with Portugal, covered with oak wood and with conifer plantations. Almost ninety-four square kilometres of high hillside and scattered hamlets.
The sivo of Baltar (traditional linen garment)
Curiosity
A linen garment proper to these border lands, woven in the houses of the concello and today almost vanished. It survives as a textile mark of identity along with the communal ovens, one of them in the parish of Tixós.