4. The archaeological excavations

The Provincial Council bought the Castle of Vimianzo in 1973 from the Archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela for the value of 600,000 pesetas of that time. We will have to wait until the next decade to speak of the beginning of the restoration work on the fortress, i.e., during the years 1984-86, which focused on cleaning and the consolidation of the walls. It is precisely during this renovation of the central part of the courtyard that these 1.80 meter-wide pillars are identified as the potential keep. These surprising findings led to the completion of a rigorous and systematic archaeological excavation to document this historical epoch of the castle.

A new excavation, during the second phase of the castle's restoration in 1988-89, hinted at new wall structures throughout the courtyard, as well as an archaeological period prior to that of the primitive keep. Among the more than 1,000 pieces of medieval pottery discovered, we find a three-lobed jar from between the 11th and 13th centuries, several iron studs with the coat of arms of the Mariña Lobeira clan, two copper coins and the remains of bones in a heap. In the absence of more comprehensive studies, a portion of the remains of this oldest phase of the castle's occupation might be related to a forge.

At present, only the foundation of the primitive keep in the central part of the courtyard and    a small part of the hypothetical forge have been found and consolidated, this being the quadrangular area near the East Tower, thought possibly to be its oven.