Mourão Castle

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

Little is known about the early occupation of this site; a low hill in the plains on the left bank of the Guadiana River. During the Reconquista, the area was frequented by clashes between Muslim and Christian forces, and as a result the town became depopulated.

Following the final conquest of the region by the Portuguese, it was granted to the Knights Hospitaller, in 1226, with the aim of repopulating the town and defending it. Mourão Castle was subsequently built during the reign of Sancho II of Portugal. It may have used remnants of an earlier Muslim fortification. Around the 1290s, during the reign of Denis of Portugal, the castle was renovated, then having 3 towers.

In the early 16th century, the castle was updated to the military standards of that era. The present church, integrated in the south wall of the enclosure, dates back to that period.

After the restoration of Portuguese independence in 1640, following the 60-years personal union with Spain, the warden of Mourão was quick in raising the Portuguese banner. Due to its proximity to the Spanish border, it was severely damaged during a Spanish attack in 1657. The following year, a major renovation of its defenses was undertaken by the French military engineer Nicolas de Langres. It was then transformed into a bastioned fortress, however, still with the medieval castle as its center.

During the next centuries, Mourão Castle lost its strategic importance and fell into disuse. The castle ruin was restored during the 20th century, the bastions around the medieval castle were not and are disappearing as a result.

The castle has an irregular trapezoidal plan. Originally it had 4 gates, 3 of them have been bricked up, leaving only the one in the south wall. It has a rectangular inner castle, in the southwest corner, with a square keep.

Mourão Castle can freely be visited. A very nice castle ruin. It has intervisibility with Monsaraz Castle far away on the opposite bank of the Guadiana. The area between the 2 castles has been turned into the large Alqueva Reservoir, after a dam had been built around 2000.

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