Castle of
São Martinho de Mouros

Parish of São Martinho de Mouros

Castle of São Martinho de Mouros
District Viseu
Council Resende
Parish São Martinho de Mouros
Area 14,67 km²
Inhabitants 1 495 (2011)
Density 101,9 hab./km²
Gentilic Resendense
Construction ( )
Reign ( )
Style ( )
Conservation ( )

The land was initially called S. Martinho, a name that certainly comes from the patron saint of the church and parish. The nickname "de Mouros" is much later. It was added and must be connected to the Christian Reconquest .

At the beginning of the 11th century, with the terrible Almançor dead, Christian troops managed to definitively reconquer from the Moors the lands on the banks of the Douro, from Foz to Aregos and Resende, on the left bank. They were the Gascos of the Ribadouro lineage and ancestors of Egas Moniz, and the presence and action of King Ramiro II of León among us cannot be excluded. We must not forget the important fact of the arrival of many relatives and servants of the Egas Moniz family, who came from Córdoba. Part of his family descended from the Arab Caliphs of this city. Having already converted to Christianity, they usually mixed with the local natives. Hence the term, "de Mouros" (of the Moors).

St. Martinho, however, belonging to the Moorish military defense area of Lamego, remained unliberated until the middle of that century. At that time, since the land still belonged to the Moors, did the people begin to call S. Martinho "de Mouros" (of the Moors)? That is what everything indicates.

There are also those who think that they called it "de Mouros" (of the Moors) after the Moors left here. Father João da Cruz Rodrigues, parish priest of S. Martinho in the middle of the 18th century, responding to the Parish Inquiries, said that the name either came from "having been inhabited in the past by the Moors, or from the barbarity of the customs of its inhabitants, because (they were) usually arrogant and haughty".

The medieval castleseta_baixoseta_cima

Brasão de Resende
Foto 1 castelo

In the context of the Christian À época da Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, during the 10th century and the first half of the 11th century, its possession fluctuated according to the Muslim domination of the lands south of the Douro River. It was definitively conquered by Ferdinand I of León and Castile along with others in the region, and the whole was handed over to Count Sesnando Davides for administration.


The castle and its domains were included in the County of Portugal, entrusted to Count D.Henrique of Burgundy, and it is believed that they supported the Independence of Portugal, with Afonso I of Portugal (1112-1185), since there is no news of him in the period. The town received a Charter issued by the sovereign in 1121.

In the first half of the 13th century, under the reign of Sancho II of Portugal (1223-1248), Abril Peres de Lumiares was the mayor of the castle. When the political crisis that led to the deposition of the sovereign by Pope Innocent IV took place, he aligned himself with the party of the kingdom's rich men, leading to the sovereign's appointment of another rich man, Soeiro Bezerra. With the appointment of Infante D.Afonso, Count of Bologna, future King Afonso III of Portugal, as regent of the kingdom, Soeiro Bezerra would hand over the castle and its domains to the regent, under circumstances that are not clearly known.

From that time onwards, information about this fortification ceased, which some authors assume to have been a simple stately tower, while others argue that it was destroyed by an assault by the forces of the deposed monarch.

From the original São Martinho de Mouros, the main church has survived to this day, with lines similar to those of a military tower, considered one of the most important medieval temples in the region south of the Douro River.

Events of the time

803 - Break between Charlemagne as Emperor of the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire.

805 - The emperor of Byzantium Nikephoros I of Constantinople suffers a heavy defeat in battle against the Saracens at Crasus.

811 - Battle of Virbitza between the Bulgarian Kroum Clan and the Byzantine Empire.

812 - Peace treaty between Emperor Charlemagne and the Empire.

814 - End of the Reign of Charlemagne.

822 - Abd al-Rahman II is appointed Caliph of Córdoba (822 to 852).

824- Louis I the Pious imposes his authority on the Papal States.
 - Battle between Abd-El-Raman III Caliph of Córdoba and Count Hermenegildo in Rio Tinto (Gondomar)

839 - Expedition of Alfonso II of Asturias to the region of Viseu.