Bulwarked Fortresses of the Raia

Since no one has reviewed Valença yet, I thought I might. I cycled around the area on the last day of August 2021. Valença is a fortified city on the banks of Rio Minho in northern Portugal, bordering the spanish city of Tui (nice cathedral). The site is pretty impressive, the forteress is massive. You can really tell how fortify is A Raia (portuguese-spanish border). The historical center is a nice charming classic northern portugal old city with lots of artisanal shops. Regular trains connect Valença with Porto everyday, as well as with Vigo in Spain. There are also buses.

I visited Marvão during an Alantejo road trip in October 2020. We arrived in the morning and lost 7 degrees from warm 20° Elvas. The village is located near Portalegre in the Parque Natural da Serra de Sao Mamede, next to the border with Spain as well. The village is built on a rocky hill and includes a very pittoresque old center as well as an impressive castle looking over the valley. 

Both site are very impressive and enjoyable. I'm really looking forward to visit Almeida one day.

This Tentative WHS includes three fortified towns on the Spanish-Portuguese border proposed as an extension of the already inscribed Garrison Border Town of Elvas. Of these, I visited Almeida and Marvão on my trip to Portugal in May 2018. In both towns, the first fortifications date back to the Middle Ages, presumably built by the Moors. In the following centuries, the medieval castles were expanded to fortified towns. The bulwark constructions as they have been preserved until today date mainly from the 17th and 18th centuries. But that's where the similarities end. The two cities could hardly be more different. This is mainly due to their different locations: Almeida is situated on a high plateau and Marvão was built on the top of a high crag.

The defensive walls of Almeida form a perfect twelve-pointed star, similar to the fortified cities of Palmanova and Neuf-Brisach. But in contrast to the Italian and French examples, Almeida is not a planned town with a symmetrical layout. The fortifications have been built around the medieval town. The complete system of bastions, ravelins and casemates has been preserved. Within the walls, you can still visit the ruins of the castle. Apart from that the two massive gates, Porta de São Francisco and Porta de Santo António, are the most striking monuments.
About 50 kilometres from Almeida is its Spanish twin, Ciudad Rodrigo, a likely candidate if a transnational nomination will be compiled. And between the two towns, right on the border, is the …

I visited this tentative WHS in July 2020 focusing on the Stronghold of Almeida which is possibly the best bulwarked fortification out of the 4 locations in Portugal. I had already visited and reviewed the Garrison Border Town of Elvas in 2014. Spain also has a separate bulwarked fortification tentative WHS made up of 8 locations, of which I visited Aldea del Obispo and Ciudad Rodrigo (already reviewed in Spain's Romanesque Cultural Enclave tentative WHS) in July 2020 and Pamplona along the Camino Frances in April 2016. I think that with some more trimming from both parties of already inscribed WHS and the weaker locations, this tentative WHS could secure inscription on the WH list if sought as a transnational WHS, following Italy/Kotor/Croatia's footsteps with the Venetian Works of Defence.

Almeida lies only a few kilometres away from the border with Spain, just opposite the fortifications of Ciudad Rodrigo. While the latter fortifications across the border in Spain only protect the highest hill side of Ciudad Rodrigo, the ones in Almeida surround it in a star-like shape and practically are one with the town they protect. I was really positively surprised by the fact that all the narrow gates and streets of Almeida are still accessible by car (although I'd suggest parking for free outside and walking) and fully inhabited by locals not a mere touristic museum town. There are signposted hiking trails around and beneath the fortifications, as well as above them and an interesting small museum next …

This site contains four fortified places on the Spanish-Portuguese border. Most of them were built in XVIth century or after. Out of four location of this proposal, one is already on the main list (Elvas), so if the whole proposal is inscribed in this shape, for most it would be an easy tick. We managed to visit another one – stronghold of Almeida and it was one of our biggest surprises in this marvellous country.

What stroke us the most is that the stronghold remained practically untouched for more than four centuries, despite the fact that there is still a living town inside. It means that the town can be accessed through several, quite narrow, historical gates. Stronghold walls, moans, ramparts are in the excellent condition and are really picturesque. Of course it all caused relative closure of the town and favored petrification of its architecture. Almeida is one of the nicest small towns we visited. I have never seen a complete fortified town like this and I think it justifies OUV of the proposal.