Castle Marvao - Visit one of the most beautiful border towns in Portugal, Marvão, a small fortified village located on top of a hill about 900 meters above sea level from where a good part of the border territory with Spain and the passage of the Sever River, an important tributary of the Tagus in Portuguese lands, was controlled, Marvão is so impressive that even its silhouette in the sky can be seen from neighboring Valencia de Alcántara in Extremadura.
 |
| Castle Marvao Alentejo Portugal |
One of the jewels inside the Castle of Marvão is its large cistern, it has two accesses through narrow stairs, supported by large arches and with a great capacity to hold water, which allowed the town of Marvão to defend itself from sieges of up to one year, the entrance to the fortress is through a barbican full of loopholes and later in the seventeenth century embrasures where the defense artillery was located, the access is convoluted in the shape of an elbow and with several access doors which It gave extra protection if an enemy was able to get there.
 |
| Castle Marvao Alentejo Portugal |
After passing the first wall of the Castle of Marvão, you come to a very open area, with a garden and a grove, it is the main parade ground, from there you reach the oldest part of the fortress, another wall that protects the access to a small parade ground where the keep is located, to get there you have to cross a corridor equipped with loopholes, in that square there is another small cistern to provide drinking water to the keep in case the first defenses were ravines, the access to the keep is several meters high and was accessed by the walkway of the wall by placing a portable wooden bridge, nowadays it can be accessed by a metal staircase.