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GPS 38.56604892045434, -8.900804097993495

The Castelo de Palmela is located in the village, parish and municipality of the same name, district of Setúbal, in Portugal.

On the Setúbal peninsula, in the eastern spur of the Arrábida mountain range, it is located between the estuaries of the Tagus and Sado rivers, close to the mouth of the latter. It is part of the so-called Costa Azul, in the Arrábida Natural Park. From the top of its donjon, on clear days the view unfolds to Lisbon.

Palmela Castle has been classified as a National Monument since 1910.

History

Background

The primitive human occupation of the region dates back to prehistory, particularly to the Neolithic period, according to the abundant archaeological evidence there. Some scholars point to the date of 310 BC, for the founding of a settlement on the site of present-day Palmela, fortified at the time of the Romanization of the Iberian Peninsula, in 106, by a praetor from Lusitania, named Áulio Cornélio (or Áulio Cornélio Palma, according to others). Modern archaeological research proves, however, that the subsequent occupation of its site was uninterrupted, initially by the Visigoths and, later, by the Muslims, the latter responsible for the primitive fortification, between the 8th and 9th centuries, greatly expanded between the 10th and the XII.

The medieval castle

At the time of the Christian Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, after the conquest of Lisbon (1147) by the forces of D. Afonso Henriques (1112-1185), Sintra, Almada and Palmela fell in the same year. At the time, the Muslim forces defending Palmela abandoned it, taking refuge in Alcácer do Sal. In this way, the Portuguese forces only took over the town and its domains. The Muslim forces, however, soon reorganized themselves, recovering the south bank of the Tagus River. The Christians reconquered Palmela in 1158. Lost again, it was definitively conquered by the sovereign on June 24, 1165. From the following year, reinforcement works were undertaken.

With the ascension of D. Sancho I (1185-1211) to the throne, the town and its domains were donated by the sovereign to the Military Order of Santiago, together with Almada and Alcácer do Sal (1186), when Palmela received a charter, passed by your Master. These towns would again fall before the onslaught of the forces of the Almóada Caliphate under the command of the caliph Yakub Almançor, who, after having reconquered the Algarve, advanced towards the north, coming to wrest from the Portuguese domain, successively, the Castle of Alcácer do Sal, the Castle of Palmela and the Castle of Almada (1190-1191). Palmela's defenses were badly damaged at the time. Reconquered, according to some, even before 1194, or more probably in 1205, the sovereign determined the necessary repairs to its defenses, confirming the donation of these domains to the monks of the Order, who installed their headquarters there before 1210, since who in the sovereign's will, drawn up that year, are already designated as freirs of Palmela. Only after the Battle of Navas de Tolosa (1212), in which there was a decisive victory for the Christians on the peninsular, were the lost lands beyond the borders that stretched from the Tagus River to Évora re-conquered.

D. Afonso III (1248-1279), on February 24, 1255, confirmed to the Order of Santiago, in the persons of its Master, D. Paio Peres Correia, and its commander, the domains and castles donated by D. Sancho I and confirmed by D. Afonso II (1211-1223), namely: Alcácer do Sal, Palmela, Almada and Arruda. His son and successor, D. Dinis (1279-1325), confirmed the town's charter (1323), believed to date from this phase when the construction of the keep, in Gothic style, defending the main door.

At the end of the reign of D. Fernando (1367-1383), when Lisbon was besieged by Castilian troops (March 1382), the outskirts of this town in the south were also plundered and set on fire: And so much they dared [the Castilian troops], without finding anyone to contradict him, that they went in boats up the river from Coina, and there they left on land, and went to burn the outskirts of Palmela, which are two great leagues from there (Fernão Lopes).

With the outbreak of the crisis of 1383-1385, the Master of Santiago, Fernando Afonso de Albuquerque, in the spring of 1384, traveled to Lisbon in support of the Master of Avis, then regent by popular acclamation, having integrated the second embassy sent to England.

Months later, during the siege of Lisbon by the Castilians, it was on top of the towers of the Castle of Palmela that the Constable D. Nuno Álvares Pereira, after the victory in the battle of Atoleiros (1384), lit large bonfires to alert the Master of Avis of the its approach, which, according to the chronicler, caused great rejoicing among the besieged (Fernão Lopes. Crónica de D. João I).

During his reign, D. João I (1385-1433) carried out expansion and reinforcement works in the castle (1423), also determining the erection of the Church and Convent where the Order of Santiago, emancipated from Castile, would settle, definitively , from 1443.

In the context of the conspiracy of the Duke of Viseu against King João II (1481-1495), aborted in 1484 with the death of the first at the hands of the second, one of the conspirators, the bishop of Évora, Garcia de Meneses, was imprisoned in the cistern of the Castelo de Palmela, where he died a few days later. The episode, summarily narrated by Rui de Pina and Garcia de Resende, is a little more illuminating in the latter's chronicle: The bishop of Évora, at the time of the death of the Duke [of Aveiro], was with the Queen, and there she went to call him , on behalf of the King, Captain Fernão Martins; and on leaving, he was soon arrested and taken with a lot of people and a lot of messages to Castelo de Palmela and placed in a cistern without water that is inside the keep, where a few days later he died, and they say with venom.

In the 16th century, King D. Manuel I (1495-1521) granted the town a Foral Novo (1512).

From the War of the Spanish Succession to the Present Day

Later, in the context of the Spanish Succession War, D. Pedro II (1667-1706) decided to modernize the castle's defenses, which received bastioned lines, adapting it to artillery fire. Still in the 18th century, the structure of the castle was seriously damaged by the earthquake of 1755. Even so, it remained occupied by the friars of Palmela until 1834, with the extinction of the Religious Orders in Portugal. It was then occupied by a contingent of the Portuguese Army, where the explorer Brito Capelo (1841) was born, son of the commander of the garrison.

It is classified as a National Monument by Decree published on June 23, 1910.

In the period leading up to the celebration of the Centennials (1940) a series of interventions were carried out in the Castle, which consisted of tearing down buildings and altering the windows of the Church of Santiago.

The facilities of the former convent were reclassified from 1945 onwards as a guesthouse, integrating, from the 1970s onwards, the Pousadas de Portugal network. Since the end of the 20th century, archaeological surveys have been carried out on the castle grounds, with some spaces being transformed into museum halls, service and commercial areas.

In 1971 the Spanish director Amando de Ossorio used the castle as one of the sets for the film "La Noche del Terror Ciego". In 2005, SIC recorded an episode of the youth series Uma Aventura based on the book Uma Aventura no Castelo dos Ventos, by Isabel Alçada and Ana Maria Magalhães (writer).

Characteristics

The castle, at an elevation of 240 meters above sea level, has an irregular, organic polygonal plan (adapted to the terrain), with the walls reinforced by square and circular turrets.

The evolution of Palmela's defensive perimeter can be understood by studying these walls, arranged in three levels of fences, without moats, separated by successive barriers:

the inner line, dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries, comprises the oldest wall, supported by two cylindrical towers and the keep, in which a cistern opens. This will have been remodeled in the 14th century, with its structure reinforced and its height increased, crowned with initialed battlements. Inside, a stonework staircase joins the various floors. The middle line, built in the 15th century, is made up of more robust walls where the main square, the Church of Santa Maria ( erected in the 12th century and rebuilt in the Renaissance), the Convent and Church of Santiago de Palmela, Gothic works. The outer line, built in the 17th century, made up of modern bulwarks, ravelins and tents, aiming to resist artillery fire.

Full list of Geochaching below: