The castle of Soutomaior has its origins in the twelfth century, when the first fortified tower was raised on this low ridge above the Verdugo river. Over subsequent centuries it was extended, damaged, and rebuilt several times, passing through the hands of powerful Galician noble families before falling into long neglect. Its current appearance owes much to a nineteenth-century neo-Gothic restoration that added the crenellated parapets and pointed windows that give it a romantic, slightly theatrical quality at odds with its genuinely medieval core.
The Diputación de Pontevedra acquired the castle in the twentieth century and opened it to the public. Guided tours take in the keep, the baronial hall, and the chapel, where the bare granite walls and flagstone floors give a good impression of the original medieval structure beneath the Victorian-era additions. The real draw for many visitors, however, is not the building itself but the grounds that surround it, which have been developed over generations into a remarkable collection of camellias, ferns, and ancient trees.