Located in the highest part of the old Castro de Untia and facing the gothic church of Santiago is this example of a medieval nobility house. The origin is a house of the family Vilousaz y Lanzós that was reconstructed between 1620 and 1625 due to the bad state of the building. In this building, criminal and civil jurisdiction was exercised. The balcony and coat of arms of the first Count of Maceda, Don Alonso Lanzós Novoa y Andrade, stand out on the façade.
Did you know that Alonso de Lanzós, one of the leaders of the Great Irmandiña War, lived in this house? The Great Irmandiña War (in reference to the urban militias called brotherhoods) was a social revolt that took place in Galicia between1467 and1469, and was possibly the greatest European revolt of the whole 15th century. It began in the spring of 1467 in Galicia, in a situation of social conflict (hunger, epidemics and abuse by the Galician nobility) and political conflict (civil war in Castile). The Holy Brotherhood, which arose and was justified by such a situation, turned into a revolt as a reaction to an accumulated feeling of grievance for the evils and damages that the people received from the nobles of the fortresses.
The Tower of Vilousaz or Lanzós is an element of defence and surveillance of the town and also a symbol of authority and power. It has a quadrangular floor plan with a wooden pyramid-shaped roof. The height is 12.5 metres. The roof was known as the hat and disappeared in the general fire of the city in 1616.