Castle of Serpa

The Castle of Serpa (Portuguese: Castelo de Serpa) is a medieval castle located in the civil parish of Serpa (Salvador e Santa Maria), in the municipality of Serpa, Portuguese district of Beja.

Archeological evidence shows that prehistoric humans occupied the region. The Romans later occupied the Iberian Peninsula. The moors later passed by the region.

During the midst of the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the town and its castle were conquered by troops under the command of the first Portuguese King Afonso I (1112-1185).

The village was returned to Muslim possession and renamed Scheberim when the major offensive of Almohad Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur retook a lot of land and reached the river Tagus in 1191. Later, the forces of King Sancho II recover these lands, and Serpa returned to Portuguese hands in 1232 and its domain were delivered to Ferdinand, king's brother, for his care.

Two decades later, with Afonso III (1248-1279) completed the conquest of the Algarve, Alfonso X of the Kingdom of Castile challenged him for jurisdictional control of these areas. Serpa domain and lands beyond the Guadiana river also was part in this dispute and saw its transfer to the Spanish monarch in 1271.

The dispute ended only in 1283 with the transfer of these to Queen Beatrix, the mother of king Dinis (1279-1325).

With the rectification of the border, under the reign of this, the village received its Foral Charter in 1295, at which time the villagers started the reconstruction of the old Muslim fortress, taking advantage of part of the primitive mud walls. To this end, the Order of Avis made a donation of one third of the incomes of the churches of Moura and Serpa to "remake and grocery alcáceres of the said castles" (1320).

In the midst of the 1383-85 Portuguese succession crisis, the village and its castle sided by the Order of Avis, having served as a base for Portuguese troops in several incursions into Spanish territory.

In the Cortes of 1455, the Serpa inhabitants contended that the population decline had their roots in wars and pestilences. Afonso V (1438-1481) remedied the situation by granting to future residents the exemption privilege for full for twenty years from military or municipal services.

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

Castle of Serpa ranks #5,328 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #86 of the 205 mapped in Portugal. Founded 1295, it is older than 66% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 860 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Évora, 75 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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