Loulé Castle

Loulé Castle lies in the town of Loulé in the Algarve province in Portugal. It is locally known as Castelo de Loulé.

The castle formed the northwest corner of the medieval city walls of the town. It was built or rebuilt shortly after the town was taken by D. Paio Peres Correia during the Reconquest in 1249. The city walls date back to the Almoravid period. In 1280 the town and castle were donated to the Order of the Knights of Santiago by D. Dinis.

During the earthquake of 1755 the castle suffered severely. The present remains of the castle consists of three outward projecting towers and one inward projecting gate tower and the walls that connect them. All of them were restored in the 20th century.

The gate in the gate tower probably also served as a city gate.

The buildings on the castle grounds, built against the walls, are now being used as a little municipal archaeological museum and the municipal library.

Two of the three outward projecting towers are built in between modern houses. A road lying in front of these walls is named Rua da Barbacã which can suggest that there may have been a lower defensive wall just in front of the castle walls. This may have been of taipa and did probably vanish when the road was laid out and the houses on this street were built.

The three towers and the connecting walls can be visited, for free, during the daytime. The rooms inside these towers can not be entered but can be viewed through glass doors.

So, even if there may be not much left of the actual castle, I found the remaining towers quite nice to visit. Also the town of Loulé is a nice town and there are several remains of the city walls, and parts of its towers, to be seen around the town.

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