Moura Castle

Moura Castle, locally known as Castelo de Moura, lies in the town of the same name in the Baixo Alentejo region in Portugal.

Moura Castle was first built by the Moors, sometime between the early 11th and mid-12th century. They fortified an oval limestone outcrop near the confluence of 2 streams, also with an alcazaba, mainly constructed out of taipa, on the southwest end.

Moura was conquered twice by Christian forces in 1166, but was quickly regained by the Muslims each time. In the next hundred years this scenario would play out 4 more times, and it was only during the reign of Denis of Portugal, from 1279 on, that Moura Castle definitively became a Christian possession. In the 1290s, the Portuguese then started to construct the present castle, making use of the walls of the old Moorish alcazaba.

As the settlement of Moura grew, a new town wall was built in the 2nd half of the 14th century. By then, the castle consisted of an inner castle on the site of the alcazaba and an outer castle, whose walls followed the outline of the outcrop.

In the early 16th century, the defenses of the town and castle were modernized. Later that century a Dominican convent was erected on the remains of an old mosque, inside the walls of the outer castle.

During the War of the Spanish Succession, in the early 18th century, Moura Castle was occupied by Spanish troops. After these troops under the Duke of Osuna were dislodged from the castle, in 1707, its walls were destroyed with dynamite, possibly to prevent it from being used by the Spanish again. The castle suffered further damage as a result of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. After this it finally fell to ruin and in the 19th century its ruins were used as a quarry. The convent was also abandoned in 1875.

The castle ruins were consolidated several times during the 20th century.

The name 'Moura', a Portuguese word meaning a female form of 'Moorish', is said to come from a legend about a Moorish woman, named Salúquia. According to the legend, she was waiting for her fiancé to return when Moorish soldiers returned and were let into the castle. These men, however, were Christians who had killed her fiancé and his men, and then donned their clothes to be able to get inside the castle. When she discovered this, she threw herself off a castle tower.

When I visited, the inner castle of Moura Castle was accessible for a fee during office hours. The outer castle is now a public park. Inside the inner castle there isn't much to see, except for the great keep. A nice castle, I really liked the interior of the keep.

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