The Fortress of Caminha (Portuguese: Castelo de Caminha) is a medieval castle in the Portuguese district of Viana do Castelo, in the village and county of Caminha, in Northern Portugal.
Caminha, an old port on a sandy point between the Coura and Minho rivers, grew based on fishing and trade (river and sea) in the 12th century, when piracy on the coast was minimised, gaining prominence as a defensive bulwark on Portugal’s northwest frontier. This was understood by King D. Afonso III (1248–1279) as part of the reorganisation of the border of Entre Douro e Minho, who built a settlement from the ground up with a logical military and urban layout.
the medieval castle
Since 1967, all of the fortified parts of Caminha that are still standing have been considered to be of public interest. This was established in 1970.
Since Christians took back the peninsula, these defenses have been built up and kept up. Since the 10th century, Caminha has been known as a place name. This, however, refers to the area of the current parish of Vilarelho, which is east of the current Caminha. On the top of Coto da Pena, you can see the remains of the original castle, which was built between the 10th and 11th centuries. As security along the coast got better over time and the economy grew, the town grew near the mouth of the River Minho, where it was lower, more fertile, and had better access to the sea.
Due to its strategic importance to the kingdom, this nearby town was settled and protected during the reigns of D. Afonso III (1248–1279), D. Dinis (1279–1325), and D. João I (1346–1443), when the kingdom was fighting Castile.
With the nobility of northern Portugal siding with Castile at the end of the 1383-1385 crisis, the good men of Vila Nova de Cerveira, Caminha, and Monço sent messages to Constable Nuno lvares Pereira declaring themselves to be true Portuguese and coming to voluntarily surrender those settlements to him.
Fortress from the 18th century
When Portugal got its independence back, Caminha’s location on the border became important again from a strategic point of view.
Thus, King King João IV and the War Council (1640–1656) modernized its defenses by giving it a vast line of bulwarks and turrets:
to the northwest, with a new bulwark close to the Igreja Matriz de Caminha, and to the south, including works built during King D. João I’s rule.
Characteristics
The remnants of Caminha’s walls, which were strengthened and expanded during the reigns of D. Afonso III, D. Dinis, and D. João I, exhibit the structural qualities of Roman defenses from the fourth and fifth centuries.
Ten towers were added as reinforcement to the roughly oval-shaped medieval wall that surrounded the settlement. It was pierced by three gates, each of which was guarded by an overlapping tower.
The so-called Porta do Sol connected the shipyards and the riverfront region to the east, and the Porta do Mar connected the harbor pier to the west.
The so-called Porta de Viana, which was the town’s principal entrance and led to Viana do Castelo, was to the south.
The strongest of the group, with a square-shaped floor plan that was once the keep, was the tower that guarded the latter. On it was written the coat of arms, which is a symbol of royal power, and it had a sacred image, which is a sign of how people worship. Its name was changed to Torre do Relógio when it began housing the town’s public clock in the seventeenth century. This clock’s bell, which is kept inside the pyramid that later ascended to the top of the tower, was cast in 1610. D. João IV ordered the installation of a stone statue of Nossa Senhora da Conceição on this door as part of the repair.
