Aljezur Castle Ruins

Viewpoint

The ruins of Aljezur Castle occupy a steep-sided hilltop above the whitewashed town, overlooking the valley of the Ribeira de Aljezur and the Atlantic coast beyond. The castle was built by the Moors in the tenth century and captured by the Knights of Santiago in 1249 during the final phase of the Christian reconquest of the Algarve. Much of the curtain wall survives, along with the foundations of several towers and a cistern.

The hilltop is reached by a short but steep climb from the old quarter of Aljezur, rewarded by views that rank among the finest in the western Algarve. To the west, the coastline stretches from Praia de Arrifana to Monte Clerigo, the beaches that have made Aljezur a centre for surfing on the Costa Vicentina. To the east, the Serra de Monchique rises on the horizon, and the patchwork of cultivated fields in the valley below provides a rare glimpse of the Algarve's agricultural landscape.

The castle's strategic value was its command of the river valley, which provided the only practicable route from the coast into the interior at this point. The hilltop position made it visible for miles in every direction, and signal fires could communicate with other castles in the chain that defended the Moorish frontier.

Aljezur itself is divided into two halves: the old Moorish town clustered around the castle hill, and the new town, built on flatter ground to the east after a malaria epidemic in the eighteenth century prompted residents to move away from the marshy valley floor. The old town retains its medieval street plan and is home to a small museum documenting the Islamic period. The castle grounds are freely accessible and unattended.