Alcoutim Castle

The Castle of Alcoutim in the municipality of Alcoutim, Portugal, was shaped mainly under medieval Portuguese rule.

Human presence at the site reaches back to the transition from the Neolithic to the Chalcolithic, when a Lusitanian castro likely occupied the hill. By the end of the 10th century B.C.E. Phoenicians established a trading post in the region, and a Greek colony followed in the mid-8th century B.C.E.; Celtic groups and Carthaginians are also recorded in the settlement’s long early history.

Roman forces took control of Alcoutim at the beginning of the 2nd century A.D. The central stronghold was converted into a military post and administrative center, known in that period as Alcoutinium. In 415 the Alans seized the site, and the principal square of Alcoutinium declined when mineral exports dropped.

Moors arrived in 715 and the place-name was changed to Alcatâ. During the Reconquista the castle began to assume the form associated with medieval defensive works. In 1240 forces loyal to King Sancho II of Portugal captured Alcoutim; Sancho II ordered rebuilding of the castle and its walls and raised the settlement to the status of a town. Defenses were reconstructed and reshaped through the second half of the 13th century.

King Denis restored the castle and its walls and in 1304 granted a charter, transferring the settlement’s title to the Order of São Tiago. The fortress later served as the site where King Ferdinand of Portugal and Henry II of Castile signed a peace treaty. Kings John II and Manuel carried out further repairs; under Manuel Gothic elements were replaced by more practical fortifications and early modern defensive features. Around 1509 Duarte d’Armas recorded the fortress as having a rectangular plan without towers, entry from a single façade, walls set in two uniform faces, and exterior buildings supporting the complex.

During the Portuguese Restoration War beginning in 1640 restorations included the construction of the batteries known as Cortadoiro and Santa Bárbara and the creation of a landing oriented toward the border; the fortress took an active role in those military efforts. After this period the stronghold entered a long decline, was eventually abandoned, and later accommodated civic uses, including a slaughterhouse in about 1878. From 1961 the national directorate responsible for monuments undertook repeated conservation and restoration campaigns, addressing masonry consolidation, demolition of ruined houses to free wall segments, repair of merlons, installation of a new main gate, removal of the main magazine’s masonry and roof, reconstruction of batteries and bulwarks, and the addition of electrical illumination. From 1992 the municipal government developed the grounds further and commissioned an archaeological museum under architect Fernando Varanda; a museum within the castle opened in 2000, was renovated in 2011, presents archaeological material spanning the Neolithic to the modern era, and a separate building holds a permanent display of Islamic board games from the Moorish period. The castle and its museum follow a regular public opening schedule, closing only on 1 January and on 24, 25 and 31 December.