Castelo de Idanha-a-Velha

Alcafozes, Portugal, Portugal

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Castelo de Idanha-a-Velha is a medieval tower and walled enclosure in the ancient village of Idanha-a-Velha, near Alcafozes in Idanha-a-Nova municipality, Castelo Branco district, eastern Portugal, built on Roman Egitânia ruins from the late 1st century BCE that included a 2nd-century defensive wall about 750 meters long with semicircular and rectangular towers.

Conquered from the Moors and donated to the Knights Templar by King Afonso Henriques, the Templars erected a prominent stone tower around 1197 on the old Roman forum site, known as Torre dos Templários or Torre de Menagem, with visual links to nearby Monsanto castle, while King Dinis reinforced the urban fence in the late 13th century.

Exemplifying Romanesque-Gothic military architecture in a flat valley setting by the Ponsul River, its oval walls partially survive integrated into village homes or lost, now part of Portugal's Historic Villages network alongside the paleo-Christian cathedral.