Castle Torres Novas

Torres Novas, Portugal, Portugal

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Castle of Torres Novas in Torres Novas, Portugal, is a Gothic-style medieval fortress rebuilt at the end of the 12th century by King Sancho I on the ruins of an older fortification during the Reconquista to protect the region from Moorish threats.

Expanded in the 1370s under King Fernando I after Castilian conflicts, it features a near-pentagonal shield-shaped wall with eleven square towers—including a prominent donjon—and once enclosed the alcaide's residence amid a larger town circuit, though much was lost to the 1755 earthquake and French invasions.

Classified a National Monument in 1910, its preserved remnants now form a scenic public garden at the city's highest point, hosting the annual medieval fair "Memórias da História" and legends of a betrayal door linked to nearby Lapas Caves.