Logbook · 7 places

Couto Mixto of Meaus

Baltar, Limia, Ourense

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 3 Nature · 2 Curiosities

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Couto Mixto of Meaus

Curiosity · Baltar, Limia, Ourense

Image of Baltar, not of the place itself.

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.

Photo: Mauro Fernandes (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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