Surmounted by a castle built on a formidable crag at an altitude of 760 metres, sortelha still retains its mediaeval appearance intact through the architecture of its rural granite houses.
Sortelha had therefore part of an important line of defence formed from a series of castles built on the borders of the territory, most of which were either erected or reconstructed on the earlier hill forts of ancient iberian civilisations. The village s name derives from the nature of its terrain, being surrounded by rocky escarpments in the shape of a ring (sortija, in castilian), its walls also having been built in a circular fashion.
The entrance to the village is through a gothic gateway. Nature and architecture also overlapped in sortelha, as evident by the rural granite houses that are built into the rocks and follow the original topography of the terrain. Within these houses, the tables, chairs and even some bed frames are still made from the original rock formation that envelops the houses.
