Castle of Cola

Parish of Ourique

Background

According to historian José Leite de Vasconcelos, the ruins of Cola belonged to a castro that predates the Roman period, perhaps from the end of the Neolithic or the beginning of the Chalcolithic, due to the remains found at the site. The remains found at the site allowed for subsequent chronological identification in the copper, bronze and iron ages. One of the main reasons for the continued occupation of the site was its location, which facilitated defense, being situated on top of a hill almost entirely surrounded by water courses, and at the same time allowed surveillance of one of the main communication routes in the region, since it was overlooking the Mira River.

On the other hand, it was situated in an area rich in copper ore and fertile land, and had easy communications due to the presence of the river. The castro was then used during Roman rule and Christianized, according to a process of adaptation from pagan religion to Christian. It was occupied by Phoenicians or Carthaginians, with the remains relating to the Roman period being insufficient to allow a conclusion.

The medieval castle

In the High Middle Ages, there is significant evidence from the Muslim period, from the 8th century onwards, which indicates a significant community, based on agricultural and livestock activities, where weaving played an important role. The primitive defensive complex, consisting of a main fortification and secondary defenses, dates from this period, or the subsequent Christian period. The Muslim occupation was proven by the presence of collections from that period, especially ceramics. Thus, the hisn or small castle of Cola became part of a set of Islamic fortifications, which protected the maritime and land borders.

This research supports the accepted assumption that, during the Muslim occupation, the primitive defense of the town gave way to a small castle, which, at the time of the Christian À época da Reconquest of the peninsula, passed into Portuguese hands during the reign of Afonso III of Portugal (1248-1279). This sovereign would have ordered repairs to his walls.

Cola Castle was occupied until the 15th century, and the theory was put forward that it was the capital of the old municipality of Marachique, which would be part of the region dominated by Silves. In fact, there are two nearby sites with similar names, Marchicão and Marchica, which may allow the identification of Cola Castle as Mardjiq, a town that would have been conquered by the forces of Al-Mundhir and Ibn Wasir, before they conquered the city of Beja.

Rediscovery

The ruins of Castro da Cola have been known to historians for around half a millennium, having been mentioned by André de Resende, Manuel do Cenáculo, Gabriel Pereira and Estácio da Veiga. In 1897, the site was investigated by José Leite de Vasconcelos, during an excursion to the Baixo Alentejo region.

In his book Antiguidades Monumentaes do Algarve: Tempos Prehistoricos, published in 1891, Estácio da Veiga included a text by Gabriel de Pereira, from the work Notas de Archeologia of 1879, where he stated that the Colla site had been visited in 1573 by André de Resende and by King D. Sebastião, and about two centuries later by Frei Manuel do Cenáculo. This priest produced a map that was later reproduced by Estácio da Veiga, and described the Castle of Cola in his work Cuidados litterarios do prelado de Beja em graça do seu diospado, from 1791: «A league from Castro to the South, in a difficult mountain, in the place of S. Pedro das Cabeças there are signs of a fortress... and of others, one of the Kings, another of the Juntas; The Senhora da Colla has more than 800 steps in a circuit, in an impassable area on all sides, with one of them being the junction of two rivers (Odemira, Mariscão).

On the tops of the hills that surround it on two sides there are remains of forts that were a type of redoubts, and watchtowers, which provided warning and made passage difficult, placed every quarter of a league or less. The idea that can be formed today of those remains, which were not explored by our own hands and we were able to advance the excavations, is uncertain in many respects: they could be from Romans, Moors and perhaps from the old Lusitanians who lived “more spartiano”, as Strabo says. The walls are 12 palms wide, without the Vitruvian alloy; in part they are formed of dry overlapping slabs. The Colla fortress has an ancient cistern at its center: the enclosure consists of a simple curtain from which a very small angular structure emerges from space to space, and which could perhaps be its bastions. There are two more spaces and intervals divided by two ante-walls, without any recessed work capable of causing mistakes, but such as would serve them instead of a ravelin or half-moon. The small angular bodies may have served to flank the throwing towers.

There are no signs of there having been towers, and they were unnecessary, because as the fortresses were on horseback, they gained some elevations of land... on the bank of one of the streams there are graves for a long space; on the mountainside we found six graves, some of which were 25 palms wide. Cenaculo states that he saw a capital and several sepulchral tombstones with Phoenician or Turdetan characters, and long swords in steel or bronze already quite calcined, without an edge, with slightly thickened handles and with flat and thickened bolts.

This archaeological site is classified as a National Monument by Decree published on June 23, 1910. Archaeologist Abel Viana was the pioneer in its systematic study, based on local legends that referred to a treasure of the "enchanted Moorish woman". The archaeological research that he began in 1958 was suspended due to his death in 1964.

On January 30, 2019, decree-law 22/2019 was published, which transferred responsibilities for the management and conservation of several monuments from the government to local authorities, including Castro da Cola, which was passed to the municipality of Ourique. In April 2019, the work VII Cadernos Culturais d’Ourique was launched, which includes the article Marachique/Castro da Cola, at the end of the Islamic Period: Reflections on its Muṣallā, by António Rafael Carvalho.

Legends

Next to the ruins, the Castro da Cola Sanctuary was built, dedicated to Our Lady of Cola, to which pilgrimages are regularly organized. According to a popular legend, it was at the site of the sanctuary that an image of Our Lady of Cola appeared. The inhabitants built a chapel in another place, where they kept the image, although it returned by itself to the place where it was found, and when a pilgrimage was made to return the image to the new chapel, its weight increased so much during the journey that it forced the carriers to turn back. According to José Leite de Vasconcelos, this legend is similar to others that he had recorded, some of them very old.

Another legend associated with the place is that during the Moorish period a bell could be heard ringing in the morning, on Saint John's Day, giving the hill the popular name of Fonte do Moinho do Sino or Pego do Sino. A third popular belief linked to the Castro da Cola hill is that women who slipped on a natural slab near one of the ravines, called a slippery stone, would have more success during childbirth. Due to this legend, it was common to see residents slipping down the slab on party days, and José Leite de Vasconcelos mentioned that a large groove had already formed in the stone. According to the researcher, legends similar to this one were found in other parts of the country and in France.