Cividade de Terroso

Ancient city in northern Portugal

Cividade de Terroso was an ancient city of the Castro culture in North western coast of the Iberian Peninsula, situated near the present bed of the Ave river, in the suburbs of present day Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal. Located, in the heart of the Castro region, the cividade played a leading role in the early urbanization of the region in the early 1st millennium BC, as one of the oldest, largest and impregnable castro settlements. It was important in coastal trading as it was part of well established maritime trade routes with the Mediterranean. Celtic and later Carthaginian influence a well known, it was eventually destroyed after the Roman conquest in 138 BC. The city's ancient name is not known with certainty but it was known during the Middle Ages as Civitas Teroso (The City of Terroso). it was built at the summit of Cividade Hill, in the suburban area of Terroso, less than 5 km from the coast, near the eastern edge of modern Póvoa de Varzim. Beyond the main citadel, three of Cividade de Terroso's outposts are known: Castro de Laundos (the citadel's surveillance post), Castro de Navais (away from the citadel, a fountain remains to this day), and Castro de Argivai (a Castro culture farmhouse in the coastal plain). Cividade de Terroso is located just 6,3 km from Cividade de Bagunte both in the North bank of the Ave river.

The settlement of Cividade de Terroso was founded during the Bronze Age, between 800 and 900 BC, as a result of the displacement of the people inhabiting the fertile plain of Beiriz and Várzea in Póvoa de Varzim. This data is supported by the discovery of egg shaped cesspits, excavated in 1981 by Armando Coelho, where he collected fragments of four vases of the earlier period prior to the settlement of the Cividade. As such, it is part of the oldest Castro culture settlements, such as the ones from Santa Luzia or Roriz. The city prospered due to its strong defensive walls and its location near the ocean, which facilitated trade with the maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean Sea, mainly during the Carthaginian rule in the South eastern Iberian Peninsula. Some of Viriatus fighters may have sought refuge in the North. These with Grovii and Callacian tribes and following Celtic ways, with their women, wanted revenge for the death of Viriatus. They attacked the Roman settlements in Lusitania, gaining momentum with the support of other tribes along the way, reaching the south of the Peninsula, near modern Andalusia. Endangering Roman rule in large stretches of Hispania. just after the death of Viriathus. Strabo wrote, probably describing this period: "until they were stopped by the Romans, who humiliated them and reduced most of their cities to mere villages" (Strabo, III.3.5). These cities included Abobriga, Lambriaca and Catania. Lambriaca allied with Rome but rebelled following regional pressure as they were perceived as traitors in the region. It led the rebellion but after months of siege, it asked for mercy as the siege left the city without provision of supplies. All of coast was occupied by the Celts. was probably located near the mouth of the Ave River, as its name suggests. According to Pomponius Mela, it was located near Lambriaca, in the lands of the Grovii. A hint which could help to identify Celtic Lambriaca is that it had two areas with cliffs and very easy access from the other two sides.

Roman mercy is recorded by the establishment of Brutus's peaceful settlements. which were the main focus for the 1982 archaeological surveys along with the recovery of Decumanus street (East west). Archaeology works resumed in 1989 and 1991. The city hall purchased the acropolis area and constructed a small archaeological museum in its entrance. In 2005, groups of Portuguese and Spanish (Galician) archaeologists had started to study the hypothesis of this cividade and six others to be classified as World Heritage sites of UNESCO. The Rede de Castros do Noroeste, the Northwestern Castro Network, was established in 2015 grouping the most important sites in Northern Portugal including Cividade de Terroso but also Cividade de Bagunte, Citânia de Sanfins, Citânia de Briteiros, Citânia de Santa Lúzia and a few other sites.

The most typical characteristic of the castros is its defensive system. The Castro culture is known by having defensive walls in their cities and villages, with circular houses in hilltops and for its characteristic ceramics, widely popular among them. It disappears with the Roman acculturation and the movement of the populations for the coastal plain, where the strong Roman cultural presence, from the 2nd century BC onwards, is visible in the vestiges of Roman villas found there where, currently, the city of the Póvoa de Varzim is located (Old Town of Póvoa de Varzim, Alto de Martim Vaz and Junqueira), and in the parishes of Estela (Villa Mendo) and near the Chapel of Santo André in Aver o Mar.

The population lived mainly from agriculture, mainly with the culture of cereals such as wheat and barley, and of vegetables (the broadbean) and acorn. The concheiro found in the Cividade showed that they ate raw or cooked limpets, mussels and Sea urchins. Some cesspits, for instance organized as a pentagon, adorn the flagstone of the Cividade, their function is unknown, but may have had some magical religious function. The funerary ritual of the Cividade was probably common to other pre Roman peoples of the Portuguese territory, but archaeological data are very rarely found in the Castro area, excepting at Cividade de Terroso. The external commerce, dominated by tin, was complemented with domestic commerce in tribal markets between the different cities and villages of the Castro culture, they exchanged textiles, metals (gold, copper, tin and lead) and other objects including exotic products, such as glass or exotic ceramics, proceeding from contacts with the peoples of the Mediterranean or other areas of the Peninsula. With the annexation of the Castro region by the Roman Republic, the commerce starts to be one of the main ways for regional economic development, with the Roman merchants organized in associations known as collegia. These associations functioned as true commercial companies who looked for monopoly in commercial relations.

In the entrance of the town there is a small museum with facilities that are intended only to support the visit to the Cividade itself, such as pictures, representations and public toilets. It is a small extension of the Ethnography and History Museum of Póvoa de Varzim, located in Póvoa de Varzim City Center, where the most relevant artifacts are kept. Although the city is protected by fences and a gate near the museum, the entrance to the city is free.