English
At the very top of the Alfama, the oldest place in Lisbon, losing ourselves in the memory of time, stands, like a sentinel, the Castelo de São Jorge, continuously refurbished, reconstructed and conditioned. In its terrace, with bird´s eye view, the red roofs of the aristocracy and melancholy of Lisbon appear. Going into it past its walls is visiting the authentic Portugal of narrow streets, colourful façades, clothes hanging from the windows and echoes of fado. This is where the ancient city refuges itself and where they preserve every single one of the layers of history which have superimposed themselves one on the other. But let´s start at the beginning.
The latest archeological excavations have manifested that before Lisbon received, on a par with the name ´Felicitas Julia´, the privileges of a Roman city around about 60BC, it was a place occupied by Greeks and Phoenicians who would use its natural port for commercial activities. These would be the navigators who, taking advantage of the natural hill of the Alfama, built the first rudimentary fortress made of wood. On top of this construction, the Romans lifted the first stone wall. Centuries later, different Barbarian tribes arrived to the city of the Taugus and destroyed everything that they came across.
When the Muslims arrived, around 711 AD, such was the destruction that Lisbon was barely a town inhabited by a few hundred souls. That´s when they lifted the double wall which has lasted until today. The interior precinct, the one that´s next to the Tower of São Lourenço, is the one which served as a royal residency, while the exterior wall was thought of to protect the people who were scattered around the Alfama (in Arabic, baths or fountains).
The fact that the bastion was important, for its strategic location by the sea, despite its reduced dimensions, gives good account to the different clashes and blockades that the Muslim castle suffered until the Christian conquest in 1147, commanded by the troops of King Alfonso Enriques the Conqueror. The legend tells that a valiant knight called Martim Moriz, taking advantage that one of the doors hadn´t closed properly, without thinking about it twice, put his own body as a wedge so that his companions could get into the precinct. Such sacrifice brought the immortality of his name because, since then, the door is known as “The Door of Martim Moniz”. The king, in order to secure the place, brought his court to the castle, once it was under the protection of São Jorge Matamoros, which remained in this military location until 1511, when Manuel I the Fortunate, moved the royal chambers to the riviera.
With the successive earthquakes and, especially the destructive one of 1755, the walls were seriously damaged in such a way that important reforms had to be made in the first decades of the 20th century. Under the dictatorship of Salazar the whole complex was conditioned, at the same time that gardens were made and the whole terrace was built.
Candela VizcaÃno
Most of the apartments in Lisbon are down by the riviera, close to the sea, so better gather some strength or take the tram before going up to the Castle of São Jorge.
Translated by: aleixgwilliam