Castelo de Torres Vedras

The castle of Torres Vedras holds the hill above the old town, a ring of walls of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries on a site that looks older still. From its walls the view runs over the Sizandro valley to the coast, the road between Lisbon and the north that made this town worth fortifying.

A castle folded into a war of earthworks

In 1809 the castle hill became one of the anchors of the Lines of Torres Vedras, the double belt of fortifications that Wellington built to stop the French invasion of 1810. Redoubts and batteries were laid into the hills around the medieval walls, and the French army never crossed them. The earthworks survive in the landscape around the town, and the castle keeps its role as the best viewpoint over a battlefield that was never lost.

Walls, church and old town

Inside the enclosure stands the church of Santa Maria do Castelo, the parish church of the medieval town, and the walls drop to streets that still follow the outline of the fortress. The castle quarter is one of the few places in the Lisbon region where a medieval castle, a nineteenth-century battlefield and a living town centre occupy the same few hundred metres.

What to see

• The castle walls and the church of Santa Maria do Castelo
• The view over the Sizandro valley from the battlements
• The nineteenth-century redoubts of the Lines of Torres Vedras around the town
• The medieval streets below the castle
• The Carnival tradition of the lower town in winter

Practical information

The castle stands above the centre of Torres Vedras, some fifty kilometres north of Lisbon on the A8. The climb is short; wear comfortable shoes and check the official websites before visiting.

Image credit: Castelo de Torres Vedras by Adriao — CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.