In the Middle Age, the Normand pirates used to visit our estuaries. All along the centuries, 16th, 17th and 18th this part of the Costa da Morte suffered from a great deal of pirate raids. As a consequence, the authorities created a plan reinforcing the coast with the building of castles as this one in Camariñas together with the ones in Fisterra, Cee and Corcubión.
The castle of Soberano was built in 1740, during the reign of Carlos III, forming a military protection that defended all the entrance of the estuary and it had 17 “troneras” (kind of open part of the walls of the military walls that defend an area”. Everything was defended by a walled enclosure with a bastion, two halves of bastion and a ditch in between. Inside, there was a storage shed that was used as a dwelling and storage of powder kegs. We have to sum up another that was built in Muxía in 1801, making any raid through the estuary kind of hard.
In the 40s, this walled enclosure used to defend the area, had stopped working as such. The necessity and the ignorance made people take the stones and use them to build a new port. Even, some of the canyons were placed as mooring for the ships. Nowadays, the foundation and part of the external wall are preserved, which are actually run by a private businessman. The final use of this cultural heritage is unclear as it also depends on the Institution in charge of patrimony.
O Camiño dos Faros goes around all this walled enclosure, and we can stop after each step to enjoy the remains of this fortress dated back from the 18th century, most of them hidden by the undergrowth.
At the end of this route, we can watch the port of Camariñas form a viewpoint.