Bragança Citadel

The citadel sits on a hill above Bragança, walled and still inhabited - people live inside it, which is unusual for a Portuguese castle - with a fifteenth-century keep of thirty-three metres housing a military museum, a wall circuit and gates. Two things inside are genuinely unusual. The pillory in the square stands on a berrão, a granite boar of Iron Age date, with the medieval column driven through its back: a pre-Roman cult object repurposed as a symbol of municipal authority, and one of hundreds of such carved animals scattered across Trás-os-Montes and Spanish Castile. And the Domus Municipalis, a five-sided Romanesque civic building of the twelfth or thirteenth century, is the only surviving example of its kind in the peninsula - a meeting hall for the town's council, built over a cistern. Bragança is remote, cold in winter, and close to the Spanish border.

The main sights

• The pillory on the boar - a medieval column driven through an Iron Age granite pig.
• The Domus Municipalis - a five-sided Romanesque council hall, unique in Iberia.
• The keep - thirty-three metres, holding a military museum.
• The living citadel - houses still occupied inside the walls.

When to go

April to October; Bragança winters are among the coldest in Portugal. Two hours. The Domus Municipalis keeps limited hours.

Practical notes

Bragança is a long way from anywhere - four hours by road from Porto. The Domus is often locked; ask at the keep. The military museum is dated. Winters are severe and summers on the plateau are hot.

Nearby

Montesinho Natural Park is north; the Douro International park is south.