page_title: Castle of Braga
section_title: Medieval
hierarchical_section_title: Castle of Braga / History / Medieval
caption_attribution_description: Torre de São Tiago (St. James' Tower) was the eastern gate into the walls of Braga. Braga, Portugal.
context_page_description: Castle of Braga is a historical fortification and defensive line encircling the city of Braga. While, in fact, the only remains of this structure are the various gates and towers along its perimeter, the main keep tower, located in the civil parish of São João do Souto, is the only true remnant of the medieval castle.
  The old castle, today demolished, had an approximate rectangular plan, with towers on each vertice. Of the walls of the city, only the gate, tower of Santiago, tower of São Sebastião and Porta Nova remain.
  Its perimeter barely exceeded 2,000 metres, and was delimited in the east by the Praça da República, west by the Rua do Castelo, Rua de São Marcos, Rua do Anjo, Largo de Santiago, Rua do Alcaide, Largo de Paulo Orósio, Rua de Jerónimo Pimentel, Campo das Carvalheiras, Avenida de São Miguel o Anjo, Largo da Porta Nova, Rua dos Biscainhos, Praça do Conselheiro Torres e Almeida and Rua dos Capelistas.
  The demolition of the grounds began in 1858 in the Largo do Barão de S. Martinho, with the destruction of the Souto Gate, followed by the Eastern and São Bento Gates, still in the 19th century.
context_section_description: Although reliable information about the evolution of Braga's early defences are lacking, it is known that, from the 11th century, a second wall was under construction, to the south and to the west, complementing the old Roman wall in the north. Furthermore, it is known that in 1145, Archbishop John of Braga promised the Knights Templar an imposing house within the city walls.
  The first documented reference to a walled keep occurred on 12 June 1161, in a transfer to the Church of São João do Souto, that included the walled spaces, and which passed metres from the Sé Cathedral.  Around 1210, the walled compound was likely expanded, since documented references referred to road and gate of Souto.
  It was in 1300, that King Denis ordered the construction of the castle, as noted by Monseigneur José Augusto Ferreira, and a year later the budget was applied to the project. In 15 years, the first documented reference to the new castle appeared, but by 1350, under the reign of King Pedro I the project had not yet been completed: the king ordered the use of residuals for the work on a new wall, abandoning the old Roman line of defenses in the north.
  Between 1369 and 1371, during the first battles of the Ferdinand Wars between Castile and forces of King Ferdinand, Henry II of Castile took the city, which was then "a great place, but badly circled, with only one tower". When Henry finally abandoned the castle, he order the city be put to flame. The tomb of Cabido, then referred to Porta do Muro, which was also named the São tiago da Cavidade.
  King Ferdinand restored the wall in 1378, adding three towers to the perimeter defenses. By 1380, three master masons continued to work on the site (João Mouro, Pero Senascais, or Senaschais, and João Pedreiro). Yet, by 31 August 1398, the archbishop D. Martinho Pires da Charneca obtained license from King John I to repair the castle and nominate an alcalde. By 20 November, of the same year, the same archbishop solicited Cabido 2000 corner stones from the tower of Quintã de Carapeços for public work on the castle and archiepiscopal. But, by 1400, even those concessions were not enough for the project, necessitating the order by the archbishop to bring all stone that was encountered in the outskirts of the city for the construction. As of 10 February 1402, the jurisdiction and defences were transferred to the archbishops by the Crown. After a feud with the Cantor of the Sé Cathedral, on the free transfer of the stone, from the tower of Carapeços, the king sent stone free-of-charge from the older buildings whose restoration was not likely to be concluded.
  On 20 December 1421, the king determined that the Moorish residents that did not respect the contract between the prelate, cabido and population, should be obliged to pay 100 reis fine, which were then applied to the construction of the walls. Yet, even by the Cortes of Lisbon (1446), the Bracarense procurators continued to complain that the population continued to pay for the city walls, whose construction was suspended. They attributed these complaints to the King's uncle, Afonso, 1st Duke of Braganza, who was the project's comptroller, and public works in the comarca of Entre Douro e Minho. Between 1456 and 1459, during the Cortes of Lisbon, there was a new denunciation against the uncompleted project, whose budget had already been squandered. As the walls began to deteriorate, the blame fell to Aires Ferreira, a squire in the House of the Duke of Braganza.
  These continued problems forced King Afonso V on 12 March 1472, to restore the authority over the city and jurisdiction to archbishop Luís Pires. Inevitably, the Church began the reconstruction of the defenses; by 1477, the wall tower, alongside the Gate of São Tiago, was already underway, requiring the collection of taxes on the sale of properties in the city. Between 1505 and 1532, archbishop Diogo de Sousa ordered the construction of the Porta Nova. Already around 1594, the map of Braga included the distinctive image of the castle and wall at its maximum extent.
  Sometime in the 17th centu
caption: The Torre de São Tiago (Tower of Saint James)
exif: {"Image Make": "CASIO", "Image Model": "QV-3500EX", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver1.001", "Image DateTime": "2001:10:30 14:04:03", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "210", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1082", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5371", "EXIF ExposureTime": "10000/3816793", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2001:10:30 14:04:03", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2001:10:30 14:04:03", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "175/48", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "2", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "491/50", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1536", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2048", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "958", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera"}