Walk along the walls of Guimarães

The Muralhas or walls of Guimaraes were built around the 9th century .

The first part to be walled was the upper town or village, called Vila do Castelo . The construction of the wall began in the reign of D. Afonso III and was completed in the reign of D. Dinis. The wall extended for about two kilometres and had defensive towers between them. There were eight gates and of the eight or nine towers, I think one still survives in some form. Until the 14th century, Guimaraes was still two villages and only later did it become one city, thanks to these defensive walls. It had eight gates known as 'Ports', three of which had a tower, and three turrets and two turrets.

You can take a short walk along the top of the old walls, and it is a pleasant way to see part of the city. On this part of the walls you can also see the Porta do Burgo.

Willem Vandenameele