Human communities construct a landscape by making physical and symbolic use of the natural space. In the process of producing this landscape, architecture becomes an important testament of the modus vivendi of human groups and their particular social logic. From recent pre-history up until the nineteenth century the Galician landscape was a cultural construction characterized by a series of defining elements: a diverse habitat, a strong demographic pressure on the environment and a noticeable compartmentalization of space. In this chapter I shall offer an archaeo-historical outline of the different architectures and built environments produced by social action in Galicia from recent prehistory (6000-800 BC) to the present day.

An architecture without architects: dwellings of the dead and the living in Galician pre-history

When did that which we call ‘architecture’ begin in Galicia? Or in other words, when does that which theoreticians call ‘primitive architecture’ or ‘architecture without architects’ start to bud? The study of the hunter-gatherer communities of the Palaeolithic does not make answering these questions an easy task, since these practices participated in an absent landscape that barely left traces in the archaeological record (Lombera Hermida 2011: 111). During the Lower Palaeolithic in Galicia (ca. 500,000 to 100,000 BC) the nomadic lifestyle pursued by human groups who travelled the lower and mid reaches of the Miño only left behind stone artefacts on the fluvial terraces which are today difficult to contextualize.