Évora Monte Castle

Évora Monte Castle, locally known as Castelo de Évora Monte, lies in a village of the same name in the Alentejo Central region in Portugal.

The settlement of Évora Monte was reconquered from the Moors in 1160, when a first castle at this site was founded. Being situated on one of the highest points of the 653-meter-high mountain range of Serra de Ossa, it was of strategic importance. The Portuguese Crown tried to repopulate the village all through the 13th century, but to little success.

King Denis of Portugal then ordered the village walls and gates to be built, in 1306. And in the late 14th century, John of Portugal donated Évora Monte to his general Nuno Álvares Pereira. Later it passed to the House of Braganza.

The 1531 Lisbon earthquake destroyed the old medieval castle. The following year, Teodósio I, Duke of Braganza, set out to rebuild the castle in the form of a compact, Italian Renaissance-styled palace. It is that castle that we see today.

Afterward, the castle quickly lost its importance. It only returned to Portuguese history in 1834, when the Concession of Evoramonte was signed here, ending the Liberal Wars, a civil war between the brothers Miguel I and Pedro IV of Portugal.

The present castle of Évora Monte has a very compact, square plan with round, conical towers at its corners. It has a gun platform as its roof. Delineating its 3 floors on the outside of the castle are cornices sculpted to look like ropes circling the structure, with sculpted knots in the center of its 4 walls.

Évora Monte Castle can be visited for a fee, but was closed when I came by, sadly enough. A sturdy, small castle in a quiet mountain-top walled village. It has intervisibility with Estremoz Castle in the northeast.

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