Parroquia San Miguel de Presqueiras

Among the archaeological remains, the Outeiro de la Escupe “insculturas” classified as BIC and a cruciform design in the rock called El Sarillo stand out.

These “insculturas” were studied by Fermín Bouza Brey. This parish is home to one of the most important signs of identity of Terra de Montes, the remains of the medieval fortress-tower of Montes, the former residence of the Xuíces-meriños and administrative and judicial centre until its collapse around 1467.

Nowadays only a few remains of the walls remain, and the chapel of Nuestra Señora del Castro, from the 16th century, with a baroque façade, with a fornice containing the image of the Virgin, ending in a typical belfry. It was the work of the masters Pedro de Arén, Xosé Nieto and Domingo Antonio Sieiro. It has a small plateresque altar of popular style. There is also an image of the Virxe do Castro, in Gothic style, polychrome and about fifty centimetres high.

Also here is the sarcophagus of Virxilio Blanco, a painter with a sober, light and precise brushstroke who was also co-founder of “Alborear”, an independent literary magazine published in Forcarei since 1931, and of which Virxilio himself was the artistic editor, collaborating in some way in the training and encouragement of future artists from Forcarei and the Terra de Montes.