page_title: Cividade de Terroso
section_title: 20th century archaeology
hierarchical_section_title: Cividade de Terroso / History / 20th century archaeology
context_page_description: 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 are well-known, it was eventually destroyed after the Roman conquest in 138 BC.
  The city's name in antiquity is not known with certainty but it was known during the Middle Ages as Civitas Teroso. 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, Castro de Navais, and Castro de Argivai. Cividade de Terroso is located just 6,3 km from Cividade de Bagunte both in the North bank of the Ave river.
context_section_description: Cividade was later rarely cited by other authors. In the early 20th century, Rocha Peixoto encouraged his friend António dos Santos Graça to subsidize archaeology works.
  In 1906, excavations began on June 5 with 25 manual workers and continued until October, interrupted due to bad weather; they recommenced in May 1907, finishing in that same year. The materials discovered were taken to museums in the city of Porto.
  After the death of Rocha Peixoto, in 1909, some rocks of the citadel had been used to pave some streets in Póvoa de Varzim, notably Rua Santos Minho Street and Rua das Hortas. Occasionally, groups of scouts of the Portuguese Youth and others in the decades of the 1950s and 1960s, made diggings in search for archaeology pieces. This was seen as archaeological vandalism but continued even after the Cividade was listed as a property of Public Interest in 1961.
  In 1980, Póvoa de Varzim City Hall invited Armando Coelho to pursue further archaeology works; these took place during the summer of that year. Result were used for Coelho's project A Cultura Castreja do Norte de Portugal. Archaeological surveys led by the same archaeologist resumed in 1981, leading to the discovery of a grave and tombstones, which helped to comprehend the funerary rituals; housing, yards and walls were also surveyed, which where 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.
caption: Cividade de Terroso during the first archaeology works in 1906.
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