Almeida

Almeida, in the highland border of the Beira Interior, is one of the great fortresses of Portugal: a star of walls, moats and bastions built to defend the frontier, with the old town kept entire inside its lines. Seen on a map, the fortress is a perfect figure; seen from its walls, it is a lesson in three centuries of military engineering.

The fortress

Almeida was fortified through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in the period of the wars with Spain, in the system of bastioned fortresses that guarded the border. The town that gives it the name lives inside the walls, on a grid of streets that keeps the shape of the old garrison town; around it, the walls with their moats, gates and outworks are among the best-preserved of the country. In 1810, during the French invasions, the fortress was shattered by the explosion of its own magazine — an episode that marked its ruins and its memory.

What to see

• The star of walls and moats, seen from the ramparts.
• The gates and the streets of the old town inside the lines.
• The casemates and the military buildings of the fortress.
• The highland landscape of the border around the walls.

Visiting

Almeida lies in the district of Guarda, on the border with Spain, within reach of the historic villages of the Beira. The fortress is explored on foot, along the ramparts and through the gates; the conditions of the visit and the programmes of the fortress follow the official information of the municipality.

Nearby

The stone village of Castelo Rodrigo and the city of Guarda are the great stops around Almeida.

Information: cm-almeida.pt.

Image credit: The walls of Almeida, by Alegna13, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.