If you travel to Santiago de Rubiasa village in the municipality of Calvos de Randínin Ourense, you can enjoy a few things: good landscapes, good food, a Romanesque church with paintings dating from the 16th century and a bronze statueinstalled since April 2008 on one side of the atrium, which shows an old man with a mustache and shaggy sideburns, wearing a hat, cape and a cane. Next to it you will find a plaque that identifies it as Delfin Modesto Brandon.
This Delfín Modesto was not an Indian who returned from the Americas with his pockets lined with money, nor a confused pilgrim on his route to Compostela. Nor a particularly popular neighbor or priest. If he is still remembered today in Calvos de Randín it is because he was the last of a long and interesting line of statesmen. Of course, of a different state to Spanish or Portuguese.
In the 21st century we remember Delfín Modesto because he was the last judge with executive and judicial powers of Mixed Coutoa republic that for several centuries survived as an independent territory on the peninsula.
Independent of the Spanish and Portuguese courts, with its own system of administration, rights and privileges. A true historical rarity, a political hiatus in the middle of Raya that managed to survive for nearly seven centuries and there are those who point out even as one of the first European democracies.
Of Couto Mixto we know better its characteristics and how it was governed and ended than its origins. Its birth usually dates back to the 12th century, to the time of the Treaty of Zamorafor which Alfonso I of Portugal (Afonso Henriques) and Alfonso VII of León They achieved an agreement that is usually marked as the birth of the Portuguese kingdom.
With this backdrop and taking advantage of the birth of a new and above all extensive border between both kingdoms, Couto Mixto was created, a small portion of territory located in the intermediate basin of the Salas River who managed to stay outside the designs of Spain and Portugal. That particular “microstate” was made up only three villas: Rubias dos Mixtos, Meaus and Santiago de Rubiás, where the locals decided to establish their capital and administrative center.
Small but independent
Couto Mixto was small, so much so that its extension barely reached the 27 square kilometers and it did not have more than a thousand inhabitants in its census. It was probably this peculiarity, added to the fact that the place was not especially prosperous or central, that allowed it to survive with its special status for several centuries without Spain or Portugal paying it much attention.
And this despite the fact that the microstate was a real rarity on the peninsular map. Because of its characteristics. And for his government system.
As remember Tourism of Galiciaan organization that today promotes the place precisely for its historical interest, functioned as a kind of “federal republic” with two great administrative figures: a representative of each of the three towns, which they called “home of agreement“, and a chief judge (“xuiz“) who was elected every three years and exercised the highest authority.
Its inhabitants also enjoyed a series of rights that, at least in certain aspects, made them privileged. They could choose between receiving Spanish nationality, Portuguese nationality or renouncing both and remaining as a citizen of Couto Mixto. Furthermore, they were exempt from fulfill military service. The microstate I didn’t have to provide soldiersbenefited from an interesting tax exemption and boasted freedom of trade and cultivation.
Another of its oddities is that the small “microstate” enjoyed the “right of asylum”, which was applied in all cases except those of blood crimes. If we add to that peculiarity that it welcomed the “Privileged Path”a road of about six kilometers that linked Couto with the neighboring Portuguese town of Tourem and it was exempt from military or fiscal control, it will be understood why over time it became an interesting point for smuggling and fugitives.
No matter how small, cornered, and ancient Couto was, it was not destined to survive forever. A few centuries after being established, Spain and Portugal decided to shelve that territorial anomaly.
The negotiations were fruitful in Lisbon Treatywhich in 1864 allowed both countries to definitively establish their common border. The pact defined the Raya from the mouth of the Miño River to the union of the Caia and the Guadiana. And it swept away the microstate, which was incorporated into Spain, deprived of its privileges.
Perhaps the tiny republic no longer exists, but its memory remains. In the atrium of the church of Santiago de Rubiás, the nerve center of the old republic, where its inhabitants met to decide relevant issues for the microstate, it has been built since 2008. the statue of Delfín Modesto Brandonhis last judge.
Inside the church there is also a replica of the ark that guarded the archive of the old republic, a chest that could only be opened with three keys, one for each “home of agreement“. Their neighbors continue to meet even today in the atrium to celebrate a symbolic act in which they name their honorary judges.
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Images| Wikimedia (map by José de Castro López (1863)), Portasxures and Wikipedia (Fabio Mendes)
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