the castle became a powder store and the powder store became a crater
In the centre of the Almeida fortress, what's left of the medieval castle is just stone foundations inside an empty perimeter. There's a metal staircase to descend into the archaeological site. That's what the 1810 explosion left behind: the castle ceased to exist that night.
It was a 13th-14th century medieval castle, rebuilt in the Manueline period, with a rectangular plan and four circular towers. In 1810, during Marshal Massena's siege, it served as a powder store. Around seven in the evening of 26 August, a French shell hit a trail of gunpowder leading from the castle; seventy-five tonnes went up at once. About five hundred men died, a breach was blown through the walls, and Colonel Cox's English garrison surrendered the following day.
The fortress complex has been classified as a National Monument since 1928, but the castle itself was never rebuilt. It stayed as a warning, in the middle of the stone star that surrounds it.
worth knowing
- you're looking at the powder store that exploded on 26 August 1810; this is ground zero of the surrender to the French
- only the foundations remain; you descend into the site via a metal staircase
- the surrounding fortress survived and is still fully intact
- another historic border village in the same municipality, Castelo Mendo, is nearby and has a different kind of story to tell
