The Portuguese territory developed with an intricate defensive system along the Luso- Spanish border, punctuated on hilltops by countless castles, towers, watchtowers, strongholds and fortified churches, as well as forts and fortresses, that strengthened the defensive strategy for the nation and its urban centres.
The five geographic lines of penetration by invading armies, namely Valença do Minho, Brecha de Chaves, Ribacoa, Zebreira and Alentejo, were garrisoned, over the centuries, with castles and fortresses, which defined and characterised the humanisation of the landscape. Settlements were shaped by walled enclosures, initially medieval in nature, and from 1640, by fortified military architecture. They were supported by a complex predefined network, with evidence pointing to architectural elements that allowed for movement between villages, such as bridges and pontoons, aqueducts to supply water and, in the citadels, military facilities such as barracks, as well as various components for the protection and affirmation of civil power, emphasised by the symbolic pillories.
In their defensive complexity, the castles and fortresses involved social and economic interactions between military and civilian life and religion, in a full occupation of the territory, and were marked by cycles of invasions that, for centuries, always came from the Luso-Spanish border, giving rise to proverbs such as ‘From Spain, neither war, nor good wind, nor good marriage’.
The stamp issue Border Castles and Fortresses highlights the Portuguese military defence system, which our forefathers developed on the edge of that line defined as a mark of separation between the two Iberian kingdoms. Thanks to the pictorial skill of artist Marín García and photographs by Adelaide Nabais, Augusto Moutinho Borges, Fátima Loureiro and Luís Chaves, the collection features seven Portuguese castles and fortresses, leading us on a heritage trail along the border, where we can wander among iconic symbols of Portuguese military identity. They include the bulwarked fortress of Valença do Minho, on the philatelic block, and, on the stamps, the imposing castle and palace of Bragança, protected by a tightly-knit citadel; the heroic castle of Miranda do Douro, with aesthetic allegories of the cathedral and the legend of the Infant Jesus of Cartolinha; the martyred fortress of Almeida in Ribacoa, evoked in military history with the battle cry ‘Soul to Almeida and from Almeida henceforth always soul,’ reflecting the fight and resistance of the people against physical and ideological invaders; the interlinked castle and fortress of Marvão, protecting the centre of the region in a perfect combination of medieval architecture, bulwarks and landscape; the castle fortress with an intricate system of forts at the majestic Praça de Elvas; and the ancient Templar castle with bulwarked walls at Castro Marim.
There are more border castles and fortresses than we are able to show in this issue, but those selected are representative of military architecture in Portugal and reflect the efforts made through war and by the military to protect the country. They are a legacy that today has become a valuable landmark in our military history, to which Portuguese history as a whole is intimately linked.
Over the years, practices have been developed to evoke the history of each fortification which, as a network, are fundamental in identifying Portuguese ancestry, exalting our predecessors, so that the historical memory can intertwine with future memory; fundamental legacies for us to affirm Portugal’s identity beyond its borders.
Augusto Moutinho Borges
(Sitting member of the Plenary of the Portuguese
Commission for Military History-Ministry of Defence,
Corresponding Member of the Portuguese Academy
of History-Ministry of Culture)
