Santa Maria da Feira

City of Porto is the ancient capital of Portugal, but ever since has remained as the capital of wine. The city itself, Porto, is built around the River Douro, which for quite a long time has been part of the trade route for wine. This former Portuguese capital has very little, but its district is one that must be visited. The Castle of Santa Maria da Feira is located about 30 km from the city and is quite interesting.

It is located in the middle between Porto and the Aveiro city. From 1910 the castle of Santa Maria da Feira in listed in the national monuments of Portugal.

Santa Maria da Feira is an amazing medieval fortress, which is also an excellent example of military construction of that time in Portugal. It was a fundamental unit in combat hostilities on the autonomy of Portugal, which was then the county. It is believed that the Santa Maria da Feira is built on the ruins of an ancient pagan temple.

After 1448 the castle became a possession of Jonathan Pereira, who took over the large scale reconstruction of the fortress. After, Santa Maria da Feira acquires the appearance of the palace complex. There are four observation towers, whose complex structure ends with domes. Not withstanding the primary reconstruction Feira never lost its appearance of a typical early medieval fortress.

After 1708 the plight of the castle was predetermined by a large fire that destroyed much of the palace. The flames launched a long period of decline and destruction of the fortress.

Santa Maria da Feira was restored in 1877 and major repairs in 1908 gave it the image, which can be seen today. At present the Santa Maria da Feira is an impressive fort, which was built with the use of solid blocks of blue and gray stone. Its oval retaining walls and its four round towers dominate its panorama.