Almeida Fortress

Almeida is a piece of 17th-century engineering that people still live in. Six earth-and-stone bastions and an outer ring of ravelins form a low star on the Beira Alta plateau, invisible until you are almost on it, wrapped in a dry ditch you can walk the whole way round. Entry is through the double gateway of Sao Francisco, a stone tunnel that turns twice so nothing can be seen straight through. Inside, a grid of whitewashed houses, a small square and the grassed-over site of the old keep. The ramparts are open ground: no ticket, no barriers, just turf, granite and long views across the border country toward Spain.

History

By 1217 the castle was one of several strongholds guarding the border with Spain, and on 8 November 1296 King Denis gave Almeida a charter ordering its castle and walls rebuilt; Ferdinand enlarged them in 1369. After the crisis of 1383 John I took Almeida in 1386, and under Manuel I the walls were strengthened and enlarged by the architect Mateus Fernandes, a work finished in 1508 (Wikipedia, Castle Fortress of Almeida).

What to look for

• The dry ditch circuit - a level walk right around the star, below the bastion walls.
• Portas de Sao Francisco - the bent stone tunnel gateway with its guardrooms.
• The casemates - vaulted chambers cut into the ramparts, open in places.
• The rampart top - grass walkways with views over the plateau to the border.

When to go

Spring for green ramparts and wildflowers in the ditch; autumn for clear air over the plateau. Winter here is genuinely cold and windy, summer afternoons are hot with no shade on the walls. Evening light picks out the geometry of the bastions better than midday. A weekday visit means having the circuit to yourself.

Things to know

The star plan reads properly only from the air, and at ground level it can look like grassy banks. The village inside is very quiet, with few places open midweek and out of season. There is no public transport worth relying on. Signage is thin, so the layout takes a while to make sense without a plan.

Nearby

Castelo Rodrigo and Marialva are within an hour, and the Coa valley park lies to the north.

Key facts