Logbook · 5 places

Hillfort of Chao Samartín

Grandas de Salime, Eo-Navia, Asturias

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 2 Nature · 1 Historical milestones

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Hillfort of Chao Samartín

Nature · Grandas de Salime, Eo-Navia, Asturias

A fortified precinct founded at the end of the Bronze Age (9th-8th centuries BC) around a ditch, a palisade and a sacred enclosure. In the Iron Age it doubled its defences and developed metalworking workshops for gold, silver and bronze. With the arrival of Rome it went through a period of peace and prosperity, giving up its defences because of the nearby gold mines, until an earthquake destroyed it around the 2nd century AD. A necropolis was later established on its ruins, between the 9th and 10th centuries, which kept the site's funerary use until the end of the Middle Ages. Excavations, begun in 1990, have not yet exhausted the site; the museum opened in 2007 beside the ruins displays more than three hundred and fifty pieces.

Photo: Mikel González (CC BY-SA 2.5 es)

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