Castelo de Palmela

retrorocketrick has added a photo to the pool:

The most famous landmark in the whole region is Palmela Castle.

The castle sits atop the highest hill in the area, at an altitude of 3937 ft (1200 metres) above sea level, at the edge of the Arrabida mountain range.

Situated with magnificent views on a spur of the Serra da Arrbida, Palmela Castle is one of the finest examples of Portuguese military architecture, although the castle itself doesnt have any important architectural significance.

Neither does it have any strong legends.

Between the 8th and 12th centuries the whole area was dominate by the Moors. During its history the ownership of this castle passed through various hands as the Moors and Christian Kings fought for its strategic possession.

Afonso I or Dom Afonso Henriques, the first King of Portugal , conquered the castle from the Moors with only sixty warriors.

It was lost again in the continual back-and-forth fighting but was permanently recovered by Sancho I, nicknamed Sancho the Populator, the second monarch of Portugal.

Later, in 1423, King Joo I, gave instructions for the castle to be altered into a monastery for the Order of Santiago. It remained so until the Orders abolition in 1834.

Built in a strategic location, the Palmela Castle was a key point between the Sado and Tejos basin and was one of the parts of the defensive triangle of Lisbon. The castle also had a high tower, bulwarks, the governor house and soldiers quarters, where the governor would stay during any war.

In its walls was born one of the most important pioneers of Portuguese Africa, Brito Capelo, who was an officer in the Portuguese Navy and a Portuguese! explore r.

He helped chart territory between Angola and Mozambique in southern Central Africa that was unknown to Europeans in the 1870s and 1880s

In the castle also lived other significant people of Portugals history, like Dom Nuno lvares Pereira,who was a Portuguese general of great success who had a decisive role in a 1383-1385 war that assured Portugal's independence from Spanish Castile. He later became a mystic, was beatified by Pope Benedict XV in 1918 and was canonised by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.

Apparently the Bishop of Evora died a painful death, probably from poisoning, in the dungeon here, as punishment for his part in a conspiracy against the 15th century King Joao II.

Even though the castle was mostly ruined, it was classified as a National Monument on the 16th June 1919.

Partial restoration of the Castle took place in 1940.

Palmela, Portugal