YOU JUST NEED TO ADMIRE A CASTLE TO FEEL NOSTALGIC ABOUT THE WELCOME PAST AND OUR ROOTS. THE CASTLE PLACE OF HEROIC AND TRAGIC ACHIEVEMENTS, TO THE OF CASTRO THE CASTLE OF CASTRO ENCHANTED MARIM IS A MIXTURE OF STORIES AND LEGENDS. MARIM RAISED BY A KING’S DESIRE AND KEPT BY THE WILL OF KING OTHERS, THE CASTLE WAS  A PLACE OF ATTACK AND DEFENCE IN WAR TIMES AND A PLACE OF SHELTER DOM TO THE POPULATIONS. ITS MUTE ROCKS RESISTED THROUGH THE TIMES AND THE SILENT WALLS STILL KEEP THE ECO OF BLOODY BATTLES. SINCE ALWAYS THE GUARDIAN OF THE PLAIN, THE CASTLE OF CASTRO A Place Full of History MARIM KEEPS STORIES AND SECRETS SO INACCESSIBLE Open From April to October: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. AS DESIRABLE. HERE ARE From November to March: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

SOME OF THEM THAT MADE To book a group visit or ask for further HISTORY.  informations, call (+351) 281 510 746 Edition of NovBaesuris WELCOME TO THE ENCHANTED KINGDOMCASTRO MARIM

One of the oldest King ordered the raise of the square structured entire fortress and in thanks giving for many places in the , Castle on the pre-existent fortifications, being victories against Castela was built a chapel Castro Marim is an this creation the oldest testimony of the por- today called Nossa Senhora dos Mártires. In excellent beginning tuguese presence here. The Christians conquer 1641, D. João IV ordered the construction of or passage point for in 1242 was followed in the XIIIth century by Saint Sebastian’s Fortress, reconstructed and those who love His- a repopulate politic and a reinforcement of the extended the castle and connected these two tory. Classified as National Monument since defences, considering the strategic position bulwarks with walls.Castro Marim became 1920, the Castle is situated in a top point and of the village bordering with Castela and the then the main square of war in the Algarve. once defended the village port. Established Moors attacks coming from North Africa. Until 1755, the village lived in the shade of between massive battlements, the castle domi- the battlements that were restored after the nates the village and it´s construction was or- The castle is a part of a remarkable edification earthquake, but the battlements and a church dered by King D. Afonso III, during the XIII th of border fortifica- in ruins outlived to tell the story. century. Inside the battlement, it raises another tion, that crossed older castle, The Old Castle, probably a Mus- many construc- Inside the castle there is a small nucleous that sulman construction that settles in an irregu- tion campaigns testimonies geologic, arqueologic and historic lar plant of square shape with four small tow- from the XIIIth to local aspects. Visiting it is like going on a trip ers and two doors. The rests of the merlons and the XVIIIth centu- in the time machine through the past of the walls that invoke wartime and make us imag- ries. In 1319, King village and comprove its great military im- ine the medieval warriors fighting gloriously D.Dinis ordered portance. The museum content is constituted for their ideals are still visible today. During the reinforcement of the castle’s fortifications by archaeologic findings from the Neolithic the period of mussulman occupation, the cas- and made Castro Marim the head-office of and craftsman objects that once belonged tle had a defence structure identified with the the Order of Christ, created to substitute the to Romans, Phoenicians, primitive center of the actual castle. Like the Order of the Templars,which would be moven Greeks, Carthaginians and village, the Castle took a strategic position pro- away later to . This military Order had Arabs, like the ceramics tecting the Portuguese coast on south of the a decisive importance on the first trips that and coppers, spear horns, Moors, which stayed here for centuries till the marked the beginning of the great era of the cannon bullets and others. Christians definitively expelled them in 1242. Discoveries. Infant D.Henrique, the Naviga- Fragments of stories that It was during D.Afonso III’s Kingdom that D. tor, was nominated governor of the Order and wrote the history of the Paio Peres Correia, Frontier Chief of the Al- lived in the Castle of Castro Marim. Later, Castro Marim Castle. garve Kingdom conquered Castro Marim. The D.Fernando ordered the restoration of the Be welcome.