This formidable stone fortress seems to grow out of the boulder-littered hilltop. There's not a lot left inside the walls but it's a beautiful site, windswept and full of lizards and wild flowers. Immense vistas take in Spain to the east and the Barragem da Idanha dam to the southwest.
There was probably a fortress here even before the Romans arrived, but after Dom Sancho I booted out the Moors in the 12th century it was beefed up. Dom Dinis fortified it, but after centuries of attacks from across the border it finally fell into ruin.
Just below the castle stands what’s left of the Romanesque Capela de São Miguel, with its cluster of tombs carved into solid rock eerily lying just outside the chapel portal.
