MARVAO

At 800 feet above the rocky edges the mountain od saint Mamede, rises this fortified city that carries on the name "The eagles nest."

Site access was difficult since time immemorial safe haven for men of different cultures that settled theres over time.

According to the latest research seems to be that its current name comes from Muslim domination, attributed to its foundation to muladí Ibn Marwan, founder in the year 875 of Badajoz.

Their disagreements with the Caliphate obliged him sometimes to evade the troops Cordoba, taking refuge in this ancient settlement that restored and strengthened, as a shelter of his family and his troops. In 1160 the Portuguese monarch D. Alfonso Enriquez  won this enclave, possibly back sometimes at the hands Arabs, given the profound changes that suffered the border between the kingdoms in the north and south. Sancho II granted privileges own in 1226, before the strategic position of the new enemy of the West, who repeatedly tried to take over the area. Dionis, by the year 1299, the monarch sent a powerful lift castle serve as a key and surveillance, to the nearby border of Castile. As Monsaraz south, the white lime, mixed with cobbled streets and masonry of their defensive construtions.

The wars of Succession, Restauration and that the two nations fought peninsular, they wrapped the population in many events in the war that was sometimes the Spanish crown which invaded the area , while others were Portuguese armies and allies, wich through Valencia de Alcantara are sending inland in Spanish territory. During the Wars of Independence Peninsulares, Spain, Portugal and Britain acted allies against the armies of Napoleon. In its early Marvão was taken by the French, who were evicted in 1808. Shortly later, in 1833 was also the scene of the Liberal Wars.

The different historical eras were adorning the face of this fortified village, which is a living museum, where time, styles and customs, have been fossilized. A popular architecture alentejana also has its indelible mark, adorning beautiful surroundings, with windows and flowery typical chimneys.

      www.cm-marvao.pt/                                                                                                                                                                  fotografias propiedad del autor

  Antonio García Candelas        Suggestions and impressions