Castle Beja, Portugal

The Castle

Medieval fortification that is the most emblematic monument of the city. Its Keep, with almost 40 meters high, is considered by some authors as the highest military tower in the country.
The Castle of Beja, namely its Keep, is the city’s best known and most emblematic monument. It is a Gothic fortress, whose construction began in the thirteenth century, soon after the Christian conquest of the city, extending through the fourteenth and possibly fifteenth centuries.
Standing out from the fortress stands the imposing Keep, almost forty meters high, considered by some experts to be a masterpiece of European Gothic military architecture.
Besides the castle, the walls that surrounded the medieval city from the same period are still visible, with twenty-eight towers and their respective wall panels remaining.

The second room is the most beautiful of the castle, according to the description of Túlio Espanca “(…) magnificent is the octagonal roof, with ogives and poly-nervated ribbing, based on modillions with a boiled cord and capitals gracefully and picturesquely sculpted with Atlantean figures and angels in the most exquisite positions. Radiating the axial star, of craftsmen covered in worked stucco, seventeen mouthpieces of flamboyant Gothic foliage lend a movement and particular enchantment to this extraordinary work of apparent architecture from the beginning of the 15th century and from the reign of King John I, where the Arabic stylistic and constructive influences are also reflected”.

In the third, simpler room, the figurative anthropo-zoomorphic decorations stand out above all. We also highlight the particularity of the numerous inscriptions of stonemasons who participated in the construction throughout the 14th / 15th centuries. From this room, we can access the eirado, protected by diamond-tipped merlons, from which we can appreciate one of the most beautiful panoramas that Beja can provide, the plain in its splendour.

In the main square is the Governor’s House, a building that underwent profound changes in the late 30’s by DGEMN action, in order to enhance and conserve the Beja Castle.

Governor’s House

The building located inside the enclosure of the castle, called the Governor’s House, is the result of different interventions over several centuries. It is thought that its original construction dates back to the 15th century, when King João II ordered the construction of a palace to welcome Prince Afonso on his honeymoon, according to the chronicler Rui de Pina. From this primitive phase it is still possible to observe the gothic arches. From 1640 on, after the restoration of independence, the place was occupied by the army as a stable and barracks, given its new function it underwent major expansion works, losing its character of noble dwelling. The third phase of intervention was in the 30s of the twentieth century by initiative of the DGEMN integrated in the context of recovery works, conservation and enhancement of the Castle of Beja. The current building results from this last intervention, in which the different balconies from the demolished buildings in Beja were integrated. The corner balcony, twinned, in marble and granite, came from the old Casa dos Corvos, located next to the Church of Santa Maria and which, according to tradition, was the palace of the Visigoth bishops and then of the Muslim governors of Beja. Currently the Governor’s House is occupied on the first floor by the City Tourism Office and sanitary facilities. On the second floor is installed, temporarily, the Jorge Vieira Museum.

Photos: Rainer Georgius