Description of the attraction
The ancient Moorish castle of Aljezur rises above the Aljezur River, which is located in the Aljezur district of the same name. Excavations carried out in the castle have shown that people have settled in this place since time immemorial. The place for the construction of the castle was gradually conquered by the inhabitants of Lusitania, who built the castle in order to protect their lands. Later, these lands were captured by the Romans, who built an observation tower there. In the VII-VIII centuries, the Visigoths also used this place in order to protect their territory. At the beginning of the 10th century, a small town was built there by the Arabs, the inhabitants of which built various structures inside and outside the walls. From this period only the water tank survived. The castle was also part of the Moorish defensive line during the Almohad caliphate and the Iberian small kingdoms era.
At the beginning of the 13th century, Aljezur was conquered by knights led by Payo Perez Correa. There is a legend that the castle was helped by a Moorish woman who betrayed her compatriots and handed the citadel into the hands of the knights. The knightly capture did not entail the destruction of the castle, although some changes in the castle occurred during the period of the capture of the castle by Christians.
The 1755 Lisbon earthquake severely damaged the castle. In 1940-41, the walls were partially restored.
The castle is located in the countryside, on a hilltop. The walls of the castle have a polygonal and uneven shape, in the northern and southern parts there are towers, in the northern part - round, in the south - rectangular. The height of the walls varies from 3 to 5 meters, and the thickness - up to one and a half meters.
