Castle of Penela (Portugal)
Encyclopedia
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
was built on a hill dominating the area and used to be a stronghold protecting Coimbra in times of Reconquista
Reconquista
The Reconquista was a period of almost 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms succeeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus...
. Castle of Penela and the neighboring castle Montemor-o-Velho are both fine examples of defensive structures of that period.
The origins of the name are controversial and are attributed by some authors to ancient Celtic tribes. According to a local legend, King Afonso I
Afonso I of Portugal
Afonso I or Dom Afonso Henriques , more commonly known as Afonso Henriques , nicknamed "the Conqueror" , "the Founder" or "the Great" by the Portuguese, and El-Bortukali and Ibn-Arrik by the Moors whom he fought, was the first King of Portugal...
(Afonso Henriques) exclaimed to incite his troops storming the stronghold: Coragem! Já estamos com o pé nela! (Courage! We have already set a foot in it!). A more plausible hypothesis is, however, that penela is a diminutive of penha, a place selected to build a fortress on.
History
It is believed that the area was already inhabited before the RomanRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
occupation, and later a Roman watchtower was erected to oversee the nearby road connecting Mérida
Mérida, Spain
Mérida is the capital of the autonomous community of Extremadura, western central Spain. It has a population of 57,127 . The Archaeological Ensemble of Mérida is a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1993.- Climate :...
, Conímbriga
Conímbriga
Conímbriga is one of the largest Roman settlements in Portugal, and is classified as a National Monument. Conímbriga lies 16 km from Coimbra and less than 2 km from Condeixa-a-Nova. The site also has a museum that displays objects found by archaeologists during their excavations,...
and Braga
Braga
Braga , a city in the Braga Municipality in northwestern Portugal, is the capital of the Braga District, the oldest archdiocese and the third major city of the country. Braga is the oldest Portuguese city and one of the oldest Christian cities in the World...
. There is, however, no strong evidence to support this hypothesis, as well as any possible fortifications built here in times of Muslim occupation
Umayyad conquest of Hispania
The Umayyad conquest of Hispania is the initial Islamic Ummayad Caliphate's conquest, between 711 and 718, of the Christian Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania, centered in the Iberian Peninsula, which was known to them under the Arabic name al-Andalus....
of the Iberian Peninsula
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
.
Medieval castle
Ferdinand I of León
Ferdinand I , called the Great , was the Count of Castile from his uncle's death in 1029 and the King of León after defeating his brother-in-law in 1037. According to tradition, he was the first to have himself crowned Emperor of Spain , and his heirs carried on the tradition...
(Fernando Magno) in 1064. In the next year the already walled settlement was granted a status of town along with four other nearby villages. The testament of count Sesnando Davides (1087), to whom the king delegated the administration of Conimbricense county, affirms that the count ruled the castle of Penela and the people in the area.
During the successive Muslim offensives in 1116 and 1117 castles Castelo de Miranda do Corvo and Castelo de Santa Eulália were conquered and destroyed, which caused the desertion of castle Castelo de Soure. These castles provided a line of defence for Coimbra region and now castle Penela was threatened. Perhaps this position was also lost, which would explain king Afonso I Henriques assaulting it in 1129, although this version is not supported by any sources. There are documents attributed to the period when a Chart of Foral
Foral
thumb|left|200px|Foral of Castro Verde - PortugalThe word foral derives from the Portuguese word foro, ultimately from Latin forum, equivalent to Spanish fuero, Galician foro, Catalan furs and Basque foru ....
was granted to the town, which reference a donation of a house inside the castle dated by 1145. This puts in question the assertion that the castle was conquered in 1148, as it is claimed by historian Frei António Brandão (Monarchia Lusitana, 1632), which is also improbable in context of the conquest of Santarém
Santarém, Portugal
Santarém is a city in the Santarém Municipality in Portugal. The city itself has a population of 28,760 and the entire municipality has 64,124 inhabitants.It is the capital of Santarém District....
and Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
since 1147 when the line of Muslim defences was pushed to river Sado
Sado River
The Sado River is a river in Southern Portugal, and is one of the major rivers in the country. It flows in a South/North direction through 175 km from its springs in the Caldeirão hills before entering the Atlantic Ocean in an estuary in the city of Setúbal.In Setúbal, its estuary is famous...
.
The castle played an important role in later periods. For instance, Afonso IV of Portugal
Afonso IV of Portugal
Afonso IV , called the Brave , was the seventh king of Portugal and the Algarve from 1325 until his death. He was the only legitimate son of King Denis of Portugal by his wife Elizabeth of Aragon.-Biography:...
(1325-1357) was born and died here.
During the 1383–1385 Crisis
1383–1385 Crisis
The 1383–1385 Crisis was a period of civil war in Portuguese history that began with the death of King Ferdinand I of Portugal, who left no male heirs, and ended with the accession to the throne of King John I in 1385, in the wake of the Battle of Aljubarrota.In Portugal, this period is also known...
, the alcaide (commander of the castle) count Viana sided with Castile
Crown of Castile
The Crown of Castile was a medieval and modern state in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then King Ferdinand III of Castile to the vacant Leonese throne...
. Once as he left the castle to seek provisions, he was ambushed at the gates by commoners. As the count fell from the hill he was decapitated by one of the commoners, whom chronicler Fernão Lopes called Caspirre.
Later Pedro duke of Coimbra undertook extensive works in the castle. He ordered a construction of a ducal palace and church São Miguel. Town's gates were rebuilt as well. The town was granted a permission to hold an annual fair
Fair
A fair or fayre is a gathering of people to display or trade produce or other goods, to parade or display animals and often to enjoy associated carnival or funfair entertainment. It is normally of the essence of a fair that it is temporary; some last only an afternoon while others may ten weeks. ...
(since 1433) on St Michael's Day (September 29).
The castle and town later became a county
County
A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...
with Afonso Vasconcelos e Meneses as the 1st count of Penela. Later the ownership of the castle was passed to the House of Aveiro.
From the earthquake of 1775 to the present day
By the 18th century the castle had lost its defensive value. The earthquake of 17551755 Lisbon earthquake
The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake, was a megathrust earthquake that took place on Saturday 1 November 1755, at around 9:40 in the morning. The earthquake was followed by fires and a tsunami, which almost totally destroyed Lisbon in the Kingdom of Portugal, and...
destroyed the donjon tower (Clock Tower) and one of the gates. To rebuild the tower in 1760 the stone from the third gate of the castle was used. In the same century after the death of José (1750-1777) the ruling family de Aveiro became extinct.
By the beginning of the 20th century the old castle was abandoned and ruined. This was brought to the public opinion and in 1910 the castle was proclaimed a National Monument. Starting in 1940-s the castle underwent a series of restoration works under the supervision of General Direction of the Buildings and National Monuments.
Description
The castle built on a graniteGranite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
mountain occupies the area of about ½ hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
(1.23 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
). It has a shape of an irregular polygon adapted to terrain. The architecture is a mixture of Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
and International Gothic
International Gothic
International Gothic is a phase of Gothic art which developed in Burgundy, Bohemia, France and northern Italy in the late 14th century and early 15th century...
styles. According to studies the construction of the castle had two important periods:
- In the 14th century when a new ring of walls was erected comprising twelve towers, four of which are preserved today.
- In the 15th century when the Clock Tower and castelejo were built being the structural evolution of the old donjon tower.
One of the gates is still preserved: the Gates of Treason or Fields Gates (the northern).