page_title: Castle of Santa Maria da Feira
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Castle of Santa Maria da Feira / History
caption_attribution_description: Português: Castelo de Santa Maria da Feira, remonta a forte Romano. Este edificio de categoria militar medieval é uma das melhores amostrar da arquitectura militar em todos os periodos da Idadea Média portuguesa.
context_page_description: The Castle of Santa Maria da Feira is a Portuguese castle in the municipality of Santa Maria da Feira, district of Aveiro. Emblematic of Portuguese medieval military architecture, the Castle of Santa Maria da Feira is one of the monuments that best reflects the diversity of defenses used during the Middle Ages, having been instrumental in the process of Reconquista and autonomy of the County of Portugal. It has been listed as a National monument since 1910.
context_section_description: Tradition has it that the Castle of Feira stands on the site of an indigenous temple dedicated to the local divinity Bandeve-Lugo Toiraeco, which was later transformed into a Marian temple. Although tombstones and other vestiges encountered in the defensive area confirm the presence of Roman settlement dating back to the early empire, there is no confirmation of the link to other temples. In the vicinity of this site existed the Roman via Olissipo-Bracara Augusta connecting Lisbon and Braga, respectively.
  When, in the middle of the 9th century (868), Alfonso III of León created the administrative and military region, that he called Terra de Santa Maria, he laid its defences in the military fortress that existed there, in Civitas Sanctae Mariae. For many years, the fortress functioned as a forward base in the Christian Reconquista from the Arab invasions from the south. Twice in 1000, the armies of Al-Mansur conquered the Castle and destroyed the local population, but they were retaken successively by Christian forces. During the reign of Bermudo III (1028–1037) Arab continued to attempt to capture the Castle, but were defeated definitively in the Battle of Cesár. The governors, Mem Guterres and Mem Lucídio developed a giant project to reconstruct the Castle and develop the lands of the Terra de Santa Maria. The Leonese kings distinguished the population with the Honra de Infanções, an honour at the time only received by the judges, magistrates and councilmen of Lisbon. The first reference to a built structure in this location occurred in the 11th century, in the Chronica Gothorum, identifying the construction of the inferior portion of the keep and fortress. Since 1117, Feira was the location of one of the most important fairs in Portugal, which, over time, gave the town its name. The fair was established in the shadow of the castle.
  The castle was at the centre of the 1128 revolt between Afonso Henriques and his mother Queen Teresa, Countess of Portugal. Teresa had created tensions between the rulers of the Iberian peninsula through conflicts with her sister Urraca, and later rebuking Alfonso VII (her nephew), resulting in his invasion of the County of Portugal. Teresa also alienated the clergy and nobles, pandering to her alliance with Galicia, through her lover Fernando Pérez, and favouring the ecclesiastical pretensions of the rival Galician Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, Diego Gelmírez. The clergy and nobility allied themselves with Afonso Henriques pretensions to the stewardship of the County of Portugal over his mother. Pero Gonçalves de Marnel, from a family of landholders, governor of Santa Maria da Feira and alcade of the Castle at the time, was one of these nobles who felt threatened by the growing power of Galicia within the County: he had been substituted as the governor of Coimbra by Fernando Pérez himself, and saw a threat to his wealth, prestige and possessions, and therefore aligned himself and his Castle with the Afonso Henriques at the São Mamede. The Galician-supported forces of the Queen were defeated on 13 June 1128, partly due to the activities that occurred at the Castle.
  By 1251, the settlement in Santa Maria da Feira was identified in the royal inventory (Portuguese: Inquirições of King Afonso I.
  The castle and lands of Feira were provided as a dowry in 1300 on the nuptials of Elizabeth of Aragon in the 13th century.
  During the 14th century, the walls were finally constructed, likely at the time Gonçalo Garcia de Figueiredo was alcalde in 1357.
  On 10 September 1372, King Ferdinand donated the lands of Santa Maria to João Afonso Telo, Count of Barcelos. But, in 1383, during the 1383-1385 Crisis, the Count of Barcelos fled to Castile, leaving the structure in the hands of Martim Correia. This change later facilitated its capture by men loyal to the Master of Aviz, John, in 1385. On 8 April 1385, the territory comes under the stewardship of Álvaro Pereira by King John I, cousin of the Constable Nuno Álvares Pereira, before being conceded to João Rodrigues de Sá.
  In 1448, it is donated to Fer
caption: A reenactment of the medieval fair that gave rise to the Castle's name
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