Castle of Braga
Remnants of Braga's medieval defensive line and keep tower.
The Castle of Braga was a rectangular fortification with towers at each corner, built to defend the city. Today, only a few gates and towers remain, including the main keep in São João do Souto, which is the last true piece of the medieval castle. The rest of the structure has been demolished.
Quick Facts
- Location
- Braga, Cávado, Norte
- Country
- Portugal
- Owner
- Portuguese Republic
- Operator
- Associação para a Defesa, Estudo e Divulgação do Património Cultural e Natural (ASPA)
- Open to public
- Private
- Built
- 2nd Century
- Materials
- Granite
- Wood
- Tile
Facts from the source article.
History
We know little about Braga’s earliest defenses, but by the 11th century a new wall was rising to the south and west, joining the older Roman wall on the north side. In 1145, Archbishop John of Braga pledged an impressive house inside the city walls to the Knights Templar. The first clear mention of a walled keep comes from June 12, 1161, in a property transfer to the Church of São João do Souto that included walled areas passing close to the Sé Cathedral. Around 1210, the walled area likely grew, since records now mention a road and gate called Souto. King Denis ordered the castle built in 1300, with funds set aside the next year. Fifteen years later, the new castle was first recorded, but by 1350, under King Pedro I, the work remained unfinished. He ordered leftover materials used for a new wall, abandoning the old Roman line to the north. During the Ferdinand Wars, between 1369 and 1371, Henry II of Castile captured the city, calling it “a great place, but badly circled, with only one tower.” When he left, he ordered the city set on fire. The tomb of Cabido was then called Porta do Muro, also known as São Tiago da Cavidade.
Architecture
From the 13th century, the city walls had an approximately circular plan. Archaeological evidence and documents allow reconstruction of the walls' general lines, but the exact location of the gates, of which there were at least four, and the towers are unknown. Beginning at the Arco da Porta Nova, an 18th-century construction replacing an older gate, the wall followed north-northeast along the Rua dos Biscainhos, looped southeast along the Rua dos Capelistas touching the castle wall, then continued southwest, south, northwest and north, passing through the Campo e Torre de São Tiago, the Largo das Carvalheiras, and the Largo de São Miguel-o-Anjo, before returning to the Arco da Porta Nova. The principal remnant, the keep tower, is located in the centre of historic Braga, encircled by buildings constructed in the spaces of the demolished castle, on the fringes of the Escola Comercial e Industrial Bartolomeu dos Mártires and near the Church of the Third Order of Saint Francis. The keep tower has a rectangular footprint and vertical block covered in tile, with façades of granite masonry slightly staggered near the ground, trimmed with chamfered merlons, battlements with gargoyles, and machicolations at the corners. It is four stories, about 30 m in height, with the first floor about 12 m tall, marked by grooves where other buildings abutted and some stones with identifiable inscriptions. On the first floor, an arched door to the northeast gives access to the interior, surmounted by a coat-of-arms of King Denis, repeated on the western façade. Cracks appear on the second and third floors towards the southeast façade, and the roof includes arched windows along each façade, with the southeast and northwest twinned. The interior is divided into individual spaces on each floor, linked by a wooden staircase, with parquet floors and wooden ceilings.
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