Portugal · Still standing
Castle of Braga
Castelo de Braga
The Castle of Braga is represented by a tall, square medieval stone keep in the city of Braga, Portugal. The surviving fabric presents a massive granite tower with plain facades, narrow vertical slits, a paired pointed-arch window high on the wall, an external stone stair and a crenellated parapet. The tower stands directly at street level among later urban buildings.
Its prime
1350
Today
Still standing
As it stood in 1350
What Castle of Braga looked like in its prime.
Massive square granite keep rising directly from street level, composed of large coursed granite blocks with weathered surfaces. The tower has a flat roofline with a crenellated parapet and projecting corner machicolation corbels; a two-light pointed-arch mullioned window with diamond leaded panes sits high on the wall; narrow vertical arrow-slits punctuate the plain façade. A broad external stone staircase climbs the right side and the tower stands flush with adjacent urban buildings.
Its story
The story of Castle of Braga.
Braga's castle was less a single stronghold than a fortified circuit: a wall of barely more than 2,000 metres encircling the city, of which the great square keep in the parish of São João do Souto is the only true remnant of the medieval castle. The first documented reference to a walled keep dates to 12 June 1161. The old castle, long demolished, had a roughly rectangular plan with towers at each vertex.
From the 13th century the city walls followed an approximately circular course with at least four gates, though the exact positions of gates and towers are unknown. Fifteenth-century works on the walls came under Afonso, 1st Duke of Braganza, comptroller of the project and of public works in Entre Douro e Minho; as the walls deteriorated, blame fell on Aires Ferreira, a squire in the Duke's house.
Demolition began in 1858 with the Souto Gate, followed by the Eastern and São Bento Gates, and much more of the circuit was destroyed in the early 20th century. Today the keep survives along with the towers of Santiago and São Sebastião and the Porta Nova, the last completely remodelled in Rococo style, while stretches of the ancient wall linger in backyards along the Rua do Anjo and Rua de São Marcos.
Step inside
5 places to explore in 1350.
The record describes 5 distinct spots at Castle of Braga, including the full exterior approach. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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