Penamacor Castle, Portugal. According to some historians this castle, (or better said its previous fortress) was the birthplace of Wamba, king of the Visigoths from 672 to 680 AD. At the time of the Christian Reconquista, the village of Penamacor was conquered by D.Sancho I (1185-1211) with the help of Knights Templar to whom the king donated the region. The Portuguese Grand-Master of the Order Gualdim Pais ordered the construction of this new castle in 1189. Two decades later the same monarch granted the village a foral chart (1209) for the purpose of attracting new residents. King D.Afonso III (1248-1279) would later grant the settlers an anual fair (1262), and during the reign of his son and successor D.Dinis (1279-1325) a new ring of walls and a keep tower were built (1300). In 1739 the castle was destroyed by an explosion in the gunpowder storage, to which only a few sets of walls and its keep tower survive, this last one only after reconstruction works in the 20th century. Since 2013 new works of restoration are underway after its classification as National Monument.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 19:23:01 +0000
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