We are faced with an architectural ensemble that are in the list of unique interest heritage buildings of Galicia. It is a group of buildings around a central patio. Arxeriz is an ancient place as the Iron Age settlement can prove. There are evidences to prove human occupation 4000 years ago, if we take the bordering and missing tumulus of Rendal and A Cova, and the near of A Morá.
“There are evidences to prove human occupation 4000 years ago, if we take the bordering and missing tumulus of Rendal and A Cova, and the near of A Morá”
Vázquez Seijas in "Castillos y Fortalezas de la provincia de Lugo" (Castles and Fortresses of Lugo province" (1955) is refered to a defensive fortress in Arxeriz, it was destroyed by the Irmandiños riot in the middle Ages.
Nowadays, the buildings are from the 17th and 18th century, except the sheds from the 20th.
The first one represents the traditional rural architecture of Galicia and they have a "U" form; the main constructions are "Casa do Patín" and "Casa Grande".The origin of Arxeriz Pazo is related with Raxo genealogy. Some documents show that Arxeriz property belonged to Mr Gonzalo Raxo de Acuña, knight of Santiago Order, in the Middle Ages; Mr Pedro Raxo de Acuña, his descendant, founded, in the second half of 16th century, the link/tie of Arxeriz. His great-grandson, an Inquisition notary, was married with Ms Ana Ulloa y Teijeiro. Today we can see in the blazons, shields of Teijeiro, Ulloa, Losada, Prado, Somoza and Taboada, which are accompanied the three ploughshares of Raxo.
In the 18th, when the Ulloa decadence happened, the fields and pazo went to the house of Lemos, to fell down, afterwards, in the Alba hands. Arxeriz ended in the hands of butlers and tax collectors. In 1916, the López Suárez doctor "Xan de Forcados" bought Arxeriz to the widow marchioness of Leis. He changed radically Arxeriz, in 1922 it becomes the boost of dairy industrialization, with Mantequerías Leonesas. It was the seed of the future family enterprise LARSA, which was made by Mr José Rodríguez López. From Arxeriz, new changes were introduced, related to the industrialization of farming thanks to López Suárez, closely linked with the Misión Biolóxica Galega (Galician Biological Mission) and other investigation and development initiatives in the first half of 20th century.
Regarding the culture, López Suarez Dr promoted the heritage study of Terra de Lemos; he sponsored the publication "Los castros de la tierra de Saviñao" (Iron Age settlement of Saviñao land) de Florentino López Cuevillas and Antonio Fraguas, and the study of Abuime tumulus and A Morá necropolis, the publication of Cuevillas and Pura Lorenzana. This period, there are in Arxeriz a lot of boat-shaped and circular mills. We have to stand out his decisive role in defending the Roman Wall of Lugo, against who promoted its demolition (Mr Angel López Pérez mayor, under Primo de Rivera, and the council authorities of the 2nd Republic); also the architectural integrity of Compañía Square of Monforte, besides promoting the ethnographic and naturist exploration of Ancares.
