Castle of Castelo Branco

The Castle of Castelo Branco (Portuguese: Castelo de Castelo Branco) is a Portuguese medieval castle in civil parish of Castelo Branco, in the municipality of the same name, in the Centro district of Castelo Branco. Known locally as the Castelo dos Templários (or Templars' Castle), the Romanesque castle was constructed under the orders of King Afonso II of Portugal in 1214.

In 1165, the territory of that would become Castelo Branco was conquered from the Moors and donated to the Knights Templar, who at the time dominated Vila Franca da Cardosa. But, by 1198, King Sancho revised the donation so that half the lands of Castelo Branco were placed within the control of Fernando Sanches. Following the model of Ávila/Évora, in 1213 a foral (charter) was issued in 1213. By the following year Cardosa was bequeathed to the Order of the Templo, confirmed in a papal bull issued by Innocence III (in 1245) where, for the first time, the name of Castelo Branco appeared.

The first fortification wall was constructed by the Knights Templar between 1214 and 1230, thereby extending their defensive line with Tomar, Monsanto, Zêzere, Almourol and Pombal. Sometime in the last year, D. Simãeo Mendes, Master of the Knights Templar, ordered the construction of a palace for his knights commanders.

By the end of the 13th century, during the reign of King Denis the castle included four gates: the Golden Gate, the Gate of Santiago, the Traitors' Gate and the Pelame Gate. In the middle of that century a second curtain of walls was constructed that resulted in the existence of seven gates, rather than the three primitive structures. Sometime during this period construction on the keep tower, that was addorsed to the wall was executed, supported from taxes on cereal grains, wine, meat, hospital leftovers, bottles and residual funds from public wills to approximately 600 pounds.

The first reference to the castle's alcalde occurred in a donation letter dated 1 October 1357, when Martim Lourenço de Figueiredo was referenced as the responsible for the defensive structure. By 1408 description of the castle included details of three chambers, a tower and two horse stables (with its own kitchen), a cattle shed, barn and guardhouse (to guard the silver). In 1422 a barbican was constructed.

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

Castle of Castelo Branco ranks #4,570 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #59 of the 205 mapped in Portugal. Founded 1214, it is older than 76% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 860 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. The nearest day-trip guide is Tomar, 83 km away. See how Portugal compares in the castle statistics.

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