Castle of Lanhoso

Parish of Póvoa de Lanhoso

Background

Primitive human occupation of the foot of the hill where the castle stands dates back to prehistoric times, during the Chalcolithic period, as attested by recent archaeological research. After the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, close to the road that connected Manuel I of Portugal (present-day Braga), Aquae Flaviae (today Chaves) and Astorga to the south of the Cávado River, a military tower was built here.

Built on top of Monte do Pilar - the largest granite monolith in the country -, isolated on the border of the Ave and Cávado river valleys, a 17th-century sanctuary was built within its walls, using the stone from the old walls. Halfway up the hill, at its entrance, you can see the remains of an old Romanized fort. Tradition claims that Countess Teresa de Leão, mother of Afonso I of Portugal (1112-1185), took refuge in this castle on two occasions.

The medieval castle

Between the 10th and 11th centuries, the old Roman fortification was reduced to its foundations. Archbishop D.Pedro (I) of Braga (1071-1091), aiming at the advanced defense of the episcopal seat of Braga, ordered the construction of the castle, according to the epigraphic plaque on the ashlar (the oldest in a castle in Portugal), following the foundations and perimeter of the original fortification.

Dna. took refuge in this defense. Teresa of León, widow of Count Henry (1093-1112) and mother of Afonso Henriques, when she was attacked by the forces of her half-sister, Urraca, Queen of León. Here, surrounded by Urraca's troops (1121), Teresa managed to negotiate an agreement - the Treaty of Lanhoso - thanks to which she saved the leadership of her county. Later, Teresa returned there, according to tradition, held by her own son after the Battle of São Mamede (1128), which is disputed by modern historiography, which suggests that this lady actually died in Galicia (1130).

In any case, the castle was renovated between the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th century, with the construction of the keep. The castle was then what was called a head of land, which reflects its regional importance.

In this context, in the 13th century, the castle was the scene of a terrible crime of passion: its mayor, D.Rui Gonçalves de Pereira, great-great-grandfather of the Count D.Nuno Álvares Pereira, who was outside the castle, upon learning of the marital infidelity of his wife, Inçes Sanches, in love with a friar from the monastery of Bouro, returned and, closing the doors to her, ordered the citadel to be set on fire, thereby causing the death of the unfaithful woman and her lover, as well as the servants, whom he implicated as accomplices for not having reported the incident. Ancient accounts state that no one escaped the fire alive, not even domestic animals.

Later, in 1264, the mayor D.Godinho Fafez, great-grandson of Fafez Luz, lord of the domains of Lanhoso at the time of Afonso I of Portugal, appointed Mem Cravo as his successor. At the end of the century, already under the reign of Denis of Portugal (1279-1325), this sovereign granted a charter to the town of Póvoa de Lanhoso (25 September 1292), renewed under the reign of Manuel I of Portugal (1495-1521) (New Charter, 4 January 1514).

From the 20th century to the present day

The castle was classified as a National Monument by Decree published on June 23, 1910. The intervention of the public authorities began in 1938, when the General Directorate of National Buildings and Monuments (DGEMN) began consolidation and restoration works, including archaeological surveys, cleaning, reconstruction of the two Turrets flanking the entrance gate, the arch of this gate, the keep, sections of the walls, and also an access road to the castle and various improvements to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Pilar. New campaigns followed, by the same agency, in 1958-1959, in 1973 and in 1975-1976. More recently, the City Council, with the support of the Adere-Lanhoso Association, carried out cleaning and consolidation work on the structures, as well as remodeling the internal floors of the tower, when the castle was reopened to the public (1996).

Currently, in addition to the medieval castle, which offers a small exhibition with testimonies from the neighboring fort, visitors can also visit the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Pilar and the Castro de Lanhoso.

Architecture

At the highest point of 385 meters above sea level, the castle has an irregular hexagonal plan, in Romanesque and Gothic style, with its walls opening out to the south, next to the Keep, the entrance gate, in a broken arch, flanked by two quadrangular, crenellated Turrets. The wall is covered by a battlement protected by a parapet topped by pyramidal crenels, some of which have openings with vestibules.

At the highest level of the land, to the east, stands the Keep, with a quadrangular plan, built from the original Roman foundations (three equidistant Turrets). Its walls, which rise to about ten meters in height, are over one meter thick. A stone staircase provides communication between the broken arched tower door, cut three meters above the ground, and the parade ground, with a quadrangular area of approximately 500 square meters, where the mayor's residence and other outbuildings, including the cistern, were located.

Externally, the complex is defended by a Barbican of approximately elliptical plan, in which the entrance gate opens to the north, accessed by a staircase carved into the rock and flanked by a crenellated Turret. A second Turret rises to the east.c

The sanctuary of Our Lady of Pilar

With the beginning of the Modern Age, once the borders of the kingdom were consolidated, the castle progressively lost its strategic importance, becoming abandoned and in ruins. This process would be accentuated from the end of the 17th century, when André da Silva Machado, a wealthy merchant from Porto, decided to build a replica of the Sanctuary of Good Jesus de Braga. To this end, he obtained permission to demolish the old castle and reuse the stone to build a sanctuary dedicated to Our Lady of Pilar (1680). The dismantling of part of the Barbican and walls began, and a church, staircase and pilgrimage chapels were built inside the enclosure: the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Pilar.

Work on the sanctuary continued in 1724, while Craesbeeck (Resurrected Memoirs of the Province of Entre Douro e Minho in 1726) describes the state of ruins of the castle, a view corroborated by the rector Paulo Antunes Alonso (Parish Memoirs, 1758), when he mentions that only the Keep remained, whose southwest corner had been damaged by a lightning strike.