Castro do Jarmelo

The strategic value of its location must have been one of the most relevant factors in the settlement of human communities on this site. Its primitive occupation possibly dates back to the Iron Age. However, it is during the Middle Ages that the place gains notoriety, once it becomes the seat of the famous county of Jarmelo - its extinction took place in 1855. The most prominent element of Castro do Jarmelo is the line of walls that surrounds it and that still surrounds the top of the elevation. Built in masonry, it presents an oval plant, in which three doors were torn, 2 in the east and one in the south. As everywhere, this line of walls had an eminently defensive function, protecting and harbouring, for centuries, on its perimeter, both its residents and the residents of the nearby farms and villages. In fact, in the wide outdoor yards of the south and west-oriented doors, important suburbs would develop, and where the two parish churches still exist: S. Pedro with its isolated bell tower and S. Miguel, as well as the old, rare and well-preserved house of the Council chamber.