Sortelha: the granite fortress where the Middle Ages never ended

Sortelha is not a castle with a village at its feet: it is a village that is inside the castle. The granite houses — grey, solid, with Manueline windows unexpectedly sprouting from rough stone — are squeezed between medieval towers and curtain walls as if there had never been a distinction between dwelling and defending. We are in the Beira Interior, in the municipality of Sabugal, at 760 metres on a granite massif surrounded by chestnut forests and enormous spherical boulders smoothed by erosion.

The oldest castle in the Beira Interior

Sortelha's first charter was granted by King Sancho II in 1228, but the castle visible today dates from a series of reconstructions between the 13th and 16th centuries. It is considered the oldest Romanesque castle in the Beira Interior. The watchtower commands the valley of the Côa, the river of prehistoric rock engravings that flows a few dozen kilometres to the west. The site's origins, however, are much older: traces of a Celtiberian hillfort and subsequent Roman occupation have been identified beneath the medieval foundations.

Inside the walls

The inhabited nucleus within the walls counts very few permanent families, but some houses have been converted into charming rural lodgings — sleeping inside a medieval castle for seventy or eighty euros a night is an experience hard to match. The main square, with the pelourinho — the medieval pillory column — still standing, looks like a film set. But it is all real.

Surroundings and gastronomy

The surroundings offer walks among cistus, wild lavender, and roe deer. In restaurants in the newer village — the one outside the walls — you can eat chanfana, an old-goat stew slow-cooked in red wine in a terracotta pot: an ancient, humble, and extraordinarily flavourful dish. Sortelha is about 300 kilometres from Lisbon and 80 from Coimbra.