Pelourinho de Casteição

Casteição, Portugal, Portugal

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Pelourinho de Casteição is a 16th-century granite pillory in Casteição village, Mêda municipality, Guarda district, northeastern Portugal, symbolizing municipal autonomy granted by King Sancho I's 1196 foral charter, reconfirmed by Afonso II in 1217 and Sancho II in 1234.

Featuring an octagonal base of three steps, a matching shaft with a quadrangular base displaying Portugal's coat of arms and royal crown on the eastern side, it culminates in a conical pinnacle topped by an armillary sphere, typical of Manueline-era monuments marking judicial power where punishments like whipping occurred publicly.

Once part of an independent council reduced to a parish by 1836 and integrated into Mêda, it survives as a classified public heritage site near the 18th-century Igreja Matriz, evoking the village's medieval repopulation amid Serra da Estrela foothills.