En un regard
Le château en bref
The Castelo da Picoña, Piconha in Portuguese, is a ruined frontier fortress perched at 932 m above sea level on the Outeiro da Almena, in the parish of Randín (Calvos de Randín), on the "Raia Seca", the land border between Galicia and Portugal. Long held by the Portuguese crown, it overlooked the Couto Misto, the neighbouring village of Tourém and the "chemin privilégié" linking these territories; in the sixteenth century, an inventory commissioned by Manuel I counted it among the castles of the kingdom. Only carved pillars and a cistern hewn into the rock survive. A recent intervention carried out by the commune and the Friends of the Couto Misto association clarified its extent and yielded rock carvings, pottery, a coin from the thirteenth–fourteenth centuries and a crossbow bolt tip. It is freely accessible on foot by a waymarked path.