Medieval element
The Irmandiños
Event
The Irmandiños were a group of peasants, inhabitants of the cities, low nobility, hidalgos and even members of the clergy who, tired of the injustices and abuses of the feudal lords, organized boards to establish an order throughout Galicia. These boards, called Brotherhoods, were armies to face the nobles and bishops.
The Irmandiños Revolt was a social revolt that took place between 1467 and 1469, which began in a situation of social conflict (hunger, epidemics and abuses of the nobility) and political (civil war in Castile). Due to this, "A Santa Irmandade" ("Holy Brotherhood") was formed, to reveal itself against the evils and accumulated damages that the town suffered from the nobility.
At the yell of "Long live the Holy Brotherhood, die knights and bishops!" the Irmandiños, that counted with 80000 troops, attacked their enemies: the noble owners of castles and fortresses. The Irmandiños, who had previous military experience in the feudal armies, imposed themselves on the lords, who had to flee to Portugal or Castile. During the two years of war, they destroyed 130 castles and fortresses.
Finally, they managed to bring order to all of Galicia. But the feudal lords soon organized well-armed armies to regain power. The Brotherhoods resisted, although they ended up being defeated, due to the inclusion of a new fire weapon in the troops of the nobles: the arquebus. Despite having been beaten, the situation did not return exactly as before, as some social improvement was achieved.
The Towers of Altamira were one of the many castles demolished by the Irmandiños during the revolt, although it was reconstructed in 1971. This towers are, nowadays, the ruins of a medieval feudal castle, which belonged to the Moscoso family, built in the ninth century in an old fort.
The castle had six rectangular towers, a wall that crosses a palace and a chapel where the owners were buried.
The most important tower, and which was the central structure of the medieval castle, was the keep. It didn't serve as a residence of the feudal lord, who didn't live in the castle. The prisioners were on the lowest floor of the tower and the treasures were stored upstairs. They accessed the highest areas with a ladder that they placed to climb and, once up, they took it out to avoid that, in case of being attacked, the enemies could easily enter. In addition, the walls of this tower were very wide to protect it from attacks.
Its name in Spanish (torre del homenaje) is due to the fact that in it the homage ceremony took place, in which the lord gave a vassal a fief in exchange for his loyality and troops to fight.
As a curiosity, in one of the towers, we can see different brands such as five-pointed stars or letters that show us the different stonemasons workshops that participated in the construction of the building.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torres_de_Altamira
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_del_homenaje
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revuelta_Irmandi%C3%B1a
The book "Historia de Galicia, a nosa historia", editions A nosa terra