page_title: Castle of Pombal
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Castle of Pombal / History
caption_attribution_description: Castelo de Pombal - Pombal - Portugal
context_page_description: The Castle of Pombal, is a medieval castle in the civil parish of Pombal, municipality of the same name in the district of Leiria in the Centre region of Portugal.
context_section_description: Around 1128, the Castle of Pombal, site of a former Roman castro and Arab fortress, was donated to the Knights Templar by Afonso Henriques in order to defend Coimbra, and which included a vast territory of land. The transfer of its control at this time, was seen as an important military position, owing to its successive generations of fortification and disputes between Christian and Muslim forces.
  The construction of the Romanesque fortress began in the middle of the 12th century (in either 1155 or 1156), and continued practically until the century's end; the construction of various towers was made to serve, stabilize and reinforce the wall, and help to repopulate the town. It is likely that work started on the encirclement of the position and later to the construction of the keep (around 1171), and includes an alambor, a defensive feature to mitigate attacks close to the walls.
  In 1171, the keep was constructed in the castle courtyard; during this period of the passive Reconquista, the keep served as the last defensive bastion, acting as the Lord lieutenants personal stronghold. At the conclusion of the project an inscription was carved over the door to the keep, something promoted by D. Gualdim Pais in the medieval period, while in 1353, the castle and village were donated to the Order of Christ. The plaque was later removed and deposited in the Convent of Christ in Tomar Municipality, on request of Prince Henry the Navigator (between 1420 and 1460).
  Little changed during the early Middle Ages to the Romanesque fortification, and only re-thinking of its battlements were identified in the reign of Manuel I of Portugal, which included the definition of the barbican and reinforcement of the medieval walls.
  A similar reconstruction of the Church of Santa Maria do Castelo began in 1560, under the alcalde Pedro de Sousa Ribeiro, an antecedent of the Count of Castelo-Melhor, who held the governorship since the reign of Afonso V until 1834.
  The castle lost its military importance during the modern era, and was attacked by French forces during the Napoleonic Peninsular War. French troops commanded by General Ney caused sevre damage to the castle during the peninsular invasion in 1811. The following year, the baptismal fountain was transferred from the Church of Santa Maria do Castelo to the Church of São Martinho. Although partially restored in the 20th century, most of the settlement began to concentrate along the flanks of the hilltop or lowlands.
  In 1923, a formal request was sent by the Municipal Council of Pombal to the Ministry of War (Portuguese: Ministério da Guerra) soliciting the transfer of the Castle to their authority. The following year, on 7 December 1924, the castle was given by the same ministry to the Núcleo da União dos Amigos dos Monumentos da Ordem de Cristo em Pombal do Castelo. The transfer included land in the village and ancillary terrains, that constituted Military Camp No.1: "in the municipal square the transfer of the ruins of the castle to the Núcleo, demarcated by 32 stone markers, numbered successively from the north to south, from the east, and numbered with the abbreviations M.G....To the Núcleo went the responsibility to conserve and guard the property, with the assistance of the Ministry of War, when necessary; the concession and title was free, with indefinite time limit, while property remained in the hands of the Ministry; the Núcleo was forbidden to perform whatsoever remodelling, even recuperations that involved demolish or new constructions in masonry, or movements of land in the esplanades, without a written license from the Ministry of War". This contract persisted until 1931, when the Núcleu was dissolved: the concession was transferred to the Comissão de Iniciativa e Turismo de Pombal (Pombal Commission for Initiatives and Turismo).
  In the years preceding the Portuguese World Exposition in 1940, there were several initiatives to restore or recuperate the site. In 1933, a request to construction a roadway to connect the Castle to Pombal, which was authorized and registered by the Mini
caption: Detail of the exterior walls showing the crenellations
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