Fraga (Forest) of Catasós in Lalín. Part 1.

Since the American phytopathologist Filippo Gravatt visited la Fraga de Catasós and proposed to FAO its protection, until it was declared a natural monument by the Xunta de Galicia (Galician regional government), 46 years had pass.

What is ”fraga”. Fraga is a Galician word meaning a lush forest with a wide variety of native tree species such as chestnuts, oaks, cork oaks and others.

The municipality of Lalín enjoys a privileged situation in the geographical center of Galicia. It has about 20,000 inhabitants spread half in the urban area and the other half in the 50 parishes of the municipality. The division into parishes remains in Galicia. They are civil parishes and are of ecclesiastical origin.

Traditional agriculture and livestock is combined with industrial activity in the textile and the aluminum and construction industries.

Lalín has an important religious and civil heritage and various natural areas of great interest such as la Fraga de Catasós which we visit today.


Coordinates to find the location of Lalín in Galicia. Extend the map and reach la Fraga: 42.635958, -8.095345


Let's start our visit to la Fraga de Catasós. We follow a path which is well signposted with yellow arrows and tell about what we see.

We will start in the Sign Number 1.

The 4.5 hectares of wooded mass which houses the highest chestnut trees in Europe nowadays are public patrimony. In the past they were owned by the Quiroga family of Catasós, who lived in a nearby pazo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pazo).

The famous Emilia Pardo Bazán, married to one of its descendants, wrote part of "Los Pazos de Ulloa" here. Is why la Fraga is also known by the name of Carballeira de Quiroga.

Sign Number 1. The path to the right is the one that we follow, the left one is the path we will descend to finish the walk by la  Fraga.

Chestnuts, oaks and some cork trees make up the mass of trees of la Fraga. There are 200 years old chestnut trees measuring 30 meters high and 5.5 meters in diameter. As a whole they presented the highest growth rates in Europe.

Sign Number 1.

La Fraga is a natural laboratory.

A closer look allows us to discover all sorts of worms, snails and insects, including vacaloura a beetle that it is endangered.

After the two trunks, we look behind us.

Even more difficult but not impossible is that we find salamanders, frogs, snakes and small mammals which have their refuge into the holes and cavities of the trunks.

We see the trunk of the chestnut tree with growth rings.

We are in any case faced with a fragile microenvironment and a process of decomposition of the wood that has a direct effect on soil formation.

Explanatory panel about the chestnut tree and growth rings by referring to various historical events that took place throughout its 270 years of existence.

The trunk and the explanatory panel.

The walk through the forest of la Fraga is short and pleasant. Very suitable for a family walk, will arouse the curiosity of children facing the singularity of its ecosystem.

We continue the walk. Sign Number 2.

We advance a few meters and approach the next sign.

We turn left and we continue slightly uphill. Sign Number 3.

We leave behind the Sign Number 3. We see two other trunks.

After these two trunks, we look behind us.

Now the path turns to the left, in the background there is a clearing in the forest and a meadow. We can see the Sign Number 4 indicates that we must go further to the left in the opposite direction.

Sign Number 4. Here we turn left next to the clearing delimited by stone walls (42.636317, -8.093579).

We can see another path going to the right. There are many paths in la Fraga de Catasós though we follow the one which the signs mark us.

We arrived at the Sign Number 5. It is a double sign pointing to the right to follow the path. It will continue to reach this same point and then we will take the footpath on the left.

We are next to the Sign Number 5. Take the path to the right through the hole left by the wall beside the tree.

Before going through the wall and continue our walk we look back and see the forest clearing.

On the other side of the wall we see the Sign Number 6. In this part, which is delimited by the wall there is what is called a Souto Manso. What does Souto mean in Galician language?  Souto is a set of chestnut trees.

Souto Manso is opposed to the other called Souto Bravo. The first one has been created by the human hand in order to obtain the use of wood or its fruits reason why the chestnut trees are planted in straight lines. There are several areas with soutos mansos as will be seen.

The path continues and returns just in this souto later. We will go backwards to the Sign Number 5 but this time we will go to the left.

We see to the other side of the wall the Sign Number 6.

Sign Number 6. We follow the path we can see the chestnut trees aligned.

We leave behind the Sign Number 6. We again see the chestnut trees aligned and the souto which is delimited by the wall.

Click here for part 2: Fraga (Forest) of Catasós in Lalín. Part 2.