In the central centuries of the Middle Ages , the Region of La Limia , being a borderland, was the scene of battles between monarchs of Castile and Portugal and the feudal lords who supported one or the other according to their interests.
In the year 1386 it was conquered by the Duke of Láncaster and later, by inheritance from the Viedma, it would pass to the house of Monterrei . Later, as a result of the marriage of the daughter of the Count of Monterrei (Francisca de Zúñiga y Viedma) with a member of the County of Lemos , it would become the property of the house of Lemos. The two Monterrei families and Lemos would dispute that fortress in an endless lawsuit for its possession.
As a curious fact, based on several interviews with a nonagenarian from Xinzo de Limia , (Pepe, 94 years old) remembers that the fifths from before had to choose between enlisting in Monterrei or in the “Castelo de Porteliña”.
In the 18th century, after joining the Xinzo de Limia Stewardship, it was abandoned. Today the keep is preserved with its four faces in perfect condition and the remains of an oblong wall that adapts perfectly to the contour lines of the terrain in which loopholes can still be seen.
Architectural configuration
The tower has a quadrangular plan of 10x10 meters and walls of considerable thickness (2.40 meters, built in squared perpiano placed in regular rows). The marks of the stonemasons who built it are still preserved.
On its door you can see corbels decorated in an eight-petal leaf holding the lintel of the discharge arch in which the Viedma coat of arms can be guessed.
Its interior is configured on three floors covered with a barrel vault. On the first floor, where the entrance is located, the vault is very high to allow an intermediate wooden floor whose functionality would be domestic.
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