United States or Suriname ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Uninfluenced by Rome, Citania was also untouched by Christianity, though it may have been inhabited after St. James if indeed he ever preached in Bracara Augusta, now Braga and his disciple São Pedro de Rates had begun their mission. But if Citania knew nothing of Christianity there still remains one remarkable monument of the native religion.
Cartailhac noticed it in the CITANIA of Portugal, some of which date from Neolithic times. The English in the Ashantee war noticed it on the bronzes they took at Coomassie on the coast of Guinea, and it has also been found on objects discovered in the English county of Norfolk. Stone hammer from New Jersey bearing an undeciphered inscription. Dr.
The best-known of these places, now called Citania from a name of a native town mentioned by ancient writers occupies the summit of a hill about nine hundred feet above the road and nearly half-way between Guimarães and Braga. The top of this hill is covered with a number of structures, some round from fifteen to twenty feet across, and some square, carefully built of well-cut blocks of granite.
The rest of the surface is covered with an intricate pattern like what may often be found on Celtic stones in Scotland. Besides this so-called Citania similar buildings have been found elsewhere, as at Sabrosa, also near Guimarães, but there the Roman influence seems usually to have been greater.
Some, not noticing the three encircling walls and the well-cut water-channels, and thinking that the round buildings far exceeded the rectangular in number, have thought that they might have been intended for granaries where corn might be stored against a time of war. But it seems far more likely that Citania was a town placed on this high hill for safety.
Word Of The Day