Chegamos em Sortelha, conheça essa vila dentro das muralhas de um castelo, TENTE não se imprecionar!

Sortelha Castle is located in the village of the same name, in the municipality of Sabugal, Guarda district, Portugal. Built on a granite massif in a dominant position overlooking the Riba-Côa valley, a passage area between the Iberian Plateau and the Cova da Beira depression, it is part of what is considered one of the best-preserved Historical Villages of the Beira Interior region. Sortelha Castle has been classified as a National Monument since 1910. History Background The earliest human occupation of the site dates back to prehistory, possibly to a Neolithic hill fort. Attracted by the mineral wealth of the region and the strategic position of the site, it was successively occupied by Romans, Visigoths, and Muslims. The medieval castle At the time of the Christian Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula, Pena Sortelha, as it was then called, served as a defense for the border region, disputed between Portugal and Castile. From 1187 onwards, King Sancho I (1185-1211) took steps to repopulate the area, and it was his namesake grandson, King Sancho II, who granted a charter to the town (1228), the likely time of the castle's construction. The town's walls were improved by King Dinis in the 13th century, who, following the signing of the Treaty of Alcanizes (1297), fixed the borders beyond the lands of Riba-Côa. In the following century, a new wall was erected on the initiative of King Fernando. In the 15th century, it is known that the castle's warden was Manuel Sardinha, succeeded by Pêro Zuzarte. In 1510, King Manuel I (1495-1521) renewed the town's charter, stating that its inhabitants were not obliged to provide lodging to the great and small of the kingdom, if that was the will of the people of Sortelha. This sovereign also initiated a campaign of works on the castle, among which the emblematic Manueline style above the gate remains. In 1522 Garcia Zuzarte became chief warden. In that same century, the nobleman D. Luís da Silveira, chief guard of D. Manuel I and D. João III (1521-1557), acquired the castle, becoming its warden, and D. João III conferred upon him the title of Count of Sortelha.