Castle of Lanhoso

The Castle of Lanhoso (Portuguese: Castelo de Lanhoso) is a medieval castle located in Póvoa de Lanhoso in the Braga district of Portugal.

Template:Geobox Although partially ruined, the Castle of Lanhoso is one of the most imposing Portuguese castles. It accounted for the significant milestone of 100,000 visitors between 1996 and 2006, a major regional tourist circuit.

Erected on top is Mount Pillar - the largest granite monolith in the country - isolated on the border between the valleys of the rivers Ave and Cávado. Within its walls has a seventeenth-century sanctuary, using the very stone of ancient walls. The hillside, their access can be enjoyed traces of an ancient castro Romanized. Tradition says that this castle hosted refuge twice to the Countess Teresa of Leon, mother of Afonso Henriques (1112-1185).

History

Early History

Archaeological research indicates that the early human occupation of the foothills dates back to ancient prehistory, specifically the Chalcolithic period, also known as the Bronze Age.

When the Romans came to the Iberian Peninsula, they constructed a fortress near where the castle is located.

Medieval Era

By the tenth century and the eleventh century, the ancient Roman fort had been reduced to its foundations. Archbishop Pedro (I) Braga (1071-1091), to the promote the defense of the episcopal see of Braga, determined the construction of the castle, as epigraphic plate in ashlar, The fortification served as a place of refuge for Teresa Countess of Portugal, Earl widow Henry (1093-1112) and mother of the first Portuguese king Afonso Henriques, when it was attacked by the forces of his half-sister, Urraca in 1121. Urraca took Theresa captive. However, an intervention by Bishop Gelmires forced the two to an agreement, the Treaty of Lanhoso, that preserved the land holdings of both sides. Later, Teresa returned there, according to tradition, held by his own son after the Battle of São Mamede (1128), which is disputed by modern historiography).

Despite this, definite record of the castle construction put it at the twelfth century to the the beginning of the thirteenth century the reform of the castle, with the construction of the keep. The castle was then what is called the head land, reflecting its regional importance.

In this context, in the eighteenth century, the castle was the scene of a terrible crime of passion: its mayor, D. Rui Gonçalves Pereira, great-grandfather of the Constable D. Nuno Alvares Pereira, who was outside the castle and, upon learning of marital infidelity his wife, Inês Sanches, enamored of a Bouro monastery friar returned and shut the doors, ordered to set fire to the citadel. This caused causing the death of the infidel and her lover, and the servants, which implied as accomplices for not having denounced the fact. The ancient accounts relate that no one escaped alive fire, even domestic animals.

King Dinis (1279-1325) granted a Foral Charter to the town of Povoa de Varzim on (25 September 1292). The castle was later renovated due to a new Foral Charter granted by King Manuel I (1495-1521) (Foral New, January 4, 1514).

Post middle Ages

With the beginning of the modern age, consolidated the frontiers of the kingdom, the castle gradually lost its strategic importance, come to know the abandonment and ruin. This process would be pronounced from the late seventeenth century, when André da Silva Machado, a wealthy merchant of Porto decided to build a replica of the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus de Braga. To this end, obtained permission to demolish the old castle and reuse the stone to build a sanctuary under the invocation of Our Lady of the Pillar (1680). thus started up the dismantling of part of the Barbican and the city walls, building up inside the enclosure a church, the staircase and the pilgrimage chapels: the Shrine of Our Lady of Pilar.

17th century to modern era

The Portuguese government classified the castle as a National Monument by Decree of June 16, 1910, published in DG No. 136 of 23 June 1910.

The intervention of the government started from 1938, when the National Buildings and Monuments Directorate General (DGEMN) initiated the works of consolidation and restoration. This included archaeological prospection work, cleaning, mixing the two turrets flanking the entrance gate, resotring the arch of that gate, fixing the main tower of the walls sections, and even an access road to the castle and several Beneficiations the Shrine of Our Lady of Pilar. New campaigns of restoration were decently successful conducted by IGESPAR in 1958-1959, in 1973 and 1975-1976. More recently, the City Council, with the support of Cling Lanhoso Association, undertook cleaning and consolidation of structures, as well as the refurbishment of the interior of the tower floors, when the castle was reopened to the public in 1996.

Currently, besides the medieval castle, which offers a small exhibition with testimonies from neighboring Castro, the visitor can still meet the Shrine of Our Lady of Pilar and the Castro of Lanhoso.