Castle of Alandroal

The Castle of Alandroal (Portuguese: Castelo do Alandroal) is a medieval castle in the civil parish of Alandroal (Nossa Senhora da Conceição), São Brás dos Matos (Mina do Bugalho) e Juromenha (Nossa Senhora do Loreto), municipality of Alandroal, Portuguese district of Évora, classified as a National Monument.

The Gothic castle of Alandroal was one of the military constructions during the reign of King D. Denis, dated from several inscriptions and commemorative plaques located within the fortress. The first dates to 6 February 1294 and is situated over the gates of the fortress. These plaques indicate that the project promoter was the Master of the Order of Avis, then D. João Afonso, who was responsible for placing the first stone on that date. The second plaque recalls the placing of the first cornerstone in 1294, by Lourenço Afonso, 9th Master of the Order of Avis, their founder, located in the western part of the keep tower. The construction of the fortification continued until 1298 and were attributed to a Moor, named Galvao, illustrating a distinction between Moorish adversaries of the time and common workers.

Between 1383 and 1385, Pedro Rodrigues, was the alcalde of the fortress. Yet, in the following years, Alandroal played little role in the organization of the military lines of the region, and it quickly began to decline.

By 1606, the interior of the castle, including the residential spaces were already in a considerable state of ruin. But, in 1774, the construction of the clock tower had already preceded indicating a level of recuperation at the site.

The barbican was destroyed in 1778 and materials from the site were used in the construction of the new municipal buildings. Between 1786 and 1793, the comarca's jail was constructed, resulting in the eventual demolition of the tower and primitive belfry (where the clock was installed).

The DGEMN undertook significant rebuilding and restoration on site between 1943 and 1946, as well as 1958, to restore the military square and several of the fortified wall. This included the restoration of the keep tower and demolition of some homes in order to open-up the castle spaces. The staircases along the battlements were regularized and stabilized, with reconstruction occurring on many of the rises.

Text adapted from “Castle of Alandroal” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Castle of Alandroal ranks #5,639 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #96 of the 205 mapped in Portugal. Founded 1294, it is older than 66% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 860 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. 7 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Évora, 46 km away. It is one of the 48 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of the Alentejo. See how Portugal compares in the castle statistics.

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