Historical Villages

Classified as a historical village, Almeida is a fortified town that, when seen from the air, has all the appearance of a 12-pointed star, this being the number of bastions and ravelins enclosing a space with a perimeter of 2500 metres. This remarkable fortress was built in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, around a mediaeval castle, in what amounted to a very important place for the strategic defence of the region, since it was situated on a plateau roughly 12 km from the border with Spain, as defined by the Treaty of Alcanices in 1297, which was the date when Almeida first became Portuguese.

An important Jewish community settled in Belmonte, substantially increasing in size when the Catholic Monarchs of Spain issued a decree ordering the expulsion of all Jews in 1492, with the king of Portugal following suit in 1496.

Built on the top of a hill at a point of great strategic significance, on the remains of earlier fortresses dating back to the Bronze Age and Roman times, Castelo Mendo is a historical village surrounded by walls that were rebuilt in the twelfth century at the orders of D. Sancho I.

Built in the 12th century but badly damaged by the earthquake in 1755, the castle was described as “new” (novo) because another one already existed in the immediate vicinity, having been abandoned because it was inadequate for the region’s defence. This is how the village came to acquire the name of Castelo Novo.

From its lofty hilltop position, the small village of Castelo Rodrigo looks down over the plateau stretching eastwards to Spain and northwards to the deep valley of the River Douro.