The Pazo do Telleiro, in Couso de Limia (Sandiás)

The Pazo do Telleiro stands in Couso de Limia, in the municipality of Sandiás, near the area where the Lagoa de Antela once lay and now surrounded by farmland. It has also been called «As Casas do Telleiro» or «Fortaleza do Telleyro». The information on this page comes mainly from a study by Beatriz Gutiérrez Caneda published in Historia de Xinzo in 2016, which incorporates the memory of the owning family; what follows refers to the state of the pazo at that date ^[1].

Origins and lineages

The oldest part dates from the 17th century and was built by Tomé Añel, a native of Vilariño de Couso, and Catalina Rodríguez, of Sandiás. The pazo remained for a long time in the Añel line; with the marriage of Xoana Añel y Arce to José de Cea y Avalle it passed to the Cea family. Eduardo de Cea y Naharro, Baron of Casa Goda, was the last owner of this line, and then the property passed to a neighbouring family, the Cabreras ^[1].

The building

It is a sober, imposing granite construction with a «U»-shaped plan that leaves an inner courtyard, formerly reached through an open passage. It underwent extensions and alterations between the 18th and 20th centuries. On the side it keeps the «mazadoiro», a bench that served for mounting pack animals and later for beating flax. On the main façade it displays an 18th-century coat of arms, crowned with a marquis’s coronet, with a shield divided into six fields: the arms of the Inquisition (an ancestor of the Avalle family was a familiar of the Holy Office), of the Suárez de Deza, the Salgado, the Ibáñez Mondragón, the Romay and the Falcón, with three fleurs-de-lis of Avalle at the bottom; it is bordered with plant motifs and Baroque volutes. On the right side there is another, smaller shield of the Pereira family ^[1].

It was also an estate with land, a spring that fed the three wash-houses in the lower part of the property, a chapel and a dovecote. The chapel, dedicated to the Child Jesus of Prague and which held a lead image, was demolished in the 1950s for agricultural purposes; the dovecote and the spring are still standing ^[1].

A century of change

The Cea family used the pazo as a country residence: Eduardo de Cea lived in Madrid and the estate was looked after by administrators and servants. According to local tradition, this conservative politician hid the Portuguese monarchist officer Paiva Couceiro at the Telleiro, exiled during the Portuguese First Republic; see Os monárquicos portugueses na Limia ^[1]. At the end of the 19th century, the pazo and some land were expropriated for the draining of the Lagoa de Antela and it was used as a crop warehouse ^[1]. At the beginning of the 20th century half passed to the Cabrera family and the other half to another neighbour, who would emigrate to Argentina; during the Civil War, the owner of the first half was conscripted and spent two years away from the house ^[1].

Legends and mysteries

The cellar and the old stables are linked to two oral versions: that people fleeing to the hills hid there during the war and bombs lie buried under the flagstones, or that the weapons belong to Paiva Couceiro’s companions. What can be observed is that the flagstones are out of place. It is also told that one night in the 20th century all the tools in the wine cellar were found scattered with the door locked, and this was attributed to the devil; and that footsteps were heard along the wooden passage ^[1]. These are oral testimonies, not documented facts.

Present condition

When the 2016 study was written, the pazo was habitable but unused, one half in the hands of heirs of the Cabrera family and the other half lived in by its owners; opening it to the public would require refurbishment. It is advisable to check its current condition before visiting, because it is private property ^[1].

Frequently asked questions

Where is the Pazo do Telleiro? In Couso de Limia, in the municipality of Sandiás ^[1].

Can it be visited? It is private property and not equipped for public visits, according to the 2016 source ^[1].

Links

• Patrimonio da Limia
• Sandiás
• Couso de Limia
• Os monárquicos portugueses na Limia

Sources

1. Beatriz Gutiérrez Caneda, «O Pazo do Telleiro, unha ollada ao pasado. Couso de Limia (Sandiás)», Historia de Xinzo, 13/05/2016. https://historiadexinzo.wordpress.com/2016/05/13/o-pazo-do-telleiro-unha-ollada-ao-pasado-couso-de-limia-sandias/