Tourist Sights: The Castle

The Chaves Castle

The Medieval Town - The Museum - The Hot Springs - The Castle - The Forts - Santa Maria Maior Church - Misericordia and Madalena - Azinheira Church - Rural Chapels - Vidago - Monforte Castle and Bolideira Rock

King Dom Dinis built the Chaves Castle in the fourteenth century. The history of this castle is fused with the history of Chaves. In 1383 D. João I donated the town and the castle to the Condestável Nuno Álvares Pereira, who helped defeat the faction opposed to the new king and who were occupying the castle. This knight included the castle in the dowry of his daughter Beatriz when she married Afonso, Count of Barcelos, King João’s bastard son, who later became the first Duke of Bragança (1371-14561). His statue is in the square in front of the town hall. For this reason, some writers refer to the castle as the castle of the Duke of Bragança.

In the middle ages we know that the inhabitants of the region drifted to the population centers, one of which was Chaves, located on a rise overlooking the Tâmega valley. There they concentrated so that in groups that could build walls and protect themselves. This was the situation at the time of the Reconquista. Being a zone of passage in the years of war, which was almost always, the walls of the vila of Chaves were built, destroyed, and again rebuilt each time one of the factions, Christian or Muslim, occupied the castle. It is probable that for several periods the town was even completely abandoned. For lack of written documents our information is sketchy.

In 1253 Afonso III supported the reconstruction and, according to documents, in 1258 granted Chaves the status of a vila. The new tower was in some ways a copy of that built by the Castilians in the castle of Monterrey, near Verín. Later most of the wall was rebuilt, but the advent of artillery would soon make the castle obsolete, and like its sister in Monterrey it would fall into ruin.

The townsfolk themselves probably caused the worst damage. Looking for material to build their houses and walls, they slowly stripped the castle of its granite blocks. When the locals today refer to the castle they are talking about the keep tower that has been kept in a reasonably good state. It is a tall tower, about eight or nine floors. Surrounded by a pretty and impeccably kept garden, with colorful flower borders, the keep is now used to house a military museum. The first two floors are rather predictably filled with ancient guns and armor, but the upper floors provide an interesting insight into the Portuguese experience of World War I and her colonial wars in Angola and elsewhere. The view of the Alto Tâmega from the battlements is superb. On very hot summer days it is not unusual to see a column of smoke rising in the distance. Forest fires, normally caused through the carelessness of visitors when the heat has made the undergrowth as dry as tinder, are a common occurrence.

Click on the following for more views of the castle: Photo 01, Photo 02, Photo 03, and Photo 04 .

The Medieval Town - The Museum - The Hot Springs - The Castle - The Forts - Santa Maria Maior Church - Misericordia and Madalena - Azinheira Church - Rural Chapels - Vidago - Monforte Castle and Bolideira Rock