Megalithic
During Neolithic were built big sized funerary monuments on the ground with stone interior chamber. Referring to this we can find Arca do Chao de Padorno (Ark of Padorno) in the hills of Santo Tomé, and "Forno ou casa dos mouros" (Oven or house of the Moors) in the town of Budián. These monuments are dated around 2200-2100 ac
Belonging to Neolithic period and related with megalithism, are the "mámoas"; (cape of earth and rubble that covers the stone ark).
Castro Culture
Castro culture related to Bronze Age can be noticed in the many hill forts (castros) that can be found in the valley and surrounding mountains as Castro Lagoa, Recaré, San Tomé and Castro de Ouro, Bacoi, Santa Cilla, Budián and Santa Cruz.
Among megalithic culture and castro culture is the culture of the Bronze Age, finds missing today but that had a farming and ranching population with activities involving the exploitation of metallic minerals whose history is part of the last period of Bronze around the first half of the first millennium a. C.
Romanization
There is no doubt about romanization of Valadouro. Roman coins found in Cadramón and utensils of roman influence found in the many hill forts in the valley. Ceramics and other materials in the villages of Santa Cruz shows the Roman influence in the centuries II to IV.
During the Middle Ages the valley doesn't present many aspects or characteristics of a romanizated territory; tribe organization, shepherding often complemented with a rudimentary agriculture and with a very low population density.
Referring to christianization, the territory belongs to the breton communitiy settled in the north of the current province of Lugo.
The arrival of Muslims in Iberian Peninsula in 711 meant the settlement in the valley of population from the south.
Valadouro lives, as the rest of the Medieval Galicia, from 1100 to 1330, a rise of "feudalism", scene of clashes between the inhabitants of Vila do Castro and its Alfoz and de bishops of Mondoñedo.
Don Pedro Pardo de Cela (Mariscal), as he was known in the fifteenth century, is linked to the history of Castro de Ouro and its Alfoz. This way the fortress of Castro and his neighbor Frouseira are remembered as prison and fence scenarios.
The years since the appointment of Don Pedro as bishopric entrusted in 1464, until his arrest and execution in Mondoñedo in 1483, were enough for creating the legend and forever relate Mariscal with Valadouro.
The old chapel of Santa María de Ferreira was built on the place now occupied by the square Plaza de Vila. The existence of this square and the development of a market run parallel throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The trade expansion due to growth of emerging markets causes the emerging of a population entity that, with the title of Villa, becomes the capital of a Council and a region.
In a parallel way to the demolition of the chapel was built the present church of Ferreira, neo-Gothic style by the architect Ruperto Sánchez (1911-1931 nave and apses. 1955 tower).
The importance of the market and the establishment of merchants and traders from Castile and the Maragatería establishing their businesses at the end of their routes leads to the creation of an economic core for the valley in the nineteenth century.
Also on the other hand the flow of wealthy businessmen who made their capital in Cuba from the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century produced the structure of the village: construction of buildings, shops and banks.
