Following its conquest by Alfonso I in the 1160s, and its brief recapture by Almohads in the 1190s, Marvão’s situation remained fragile around the start of the 13th century: it was listed among Portuguese territories only in the termo of Castelo Branco in 1214. Marvão was a recently conquered outpost, that needed to be fully integrated into Portugal, and which stood on the edge of territories conquered by an expansionist Kingdom of León.

The process of Portuguesification began under the reigns of kings Sancho I and Alfonso II. Yet it was the famous Christian victory over the Almohads at Navas de Tolosa (near Jaén) in 1212 – leaving 100,000 Moors dead – that would effectively secure this area of south-western Iberia, and establish a lasting peace. The São Mamede mountains and Guadiana valleys now became a bridgehead from which the reconquista could make strong inroads into Almohad territory in the Southern Alentejo, Algarve, Southern Extremadura and north-west Andalusia.

Marvão’s role as fortress now became more important not as a Christian or Moorish outpost-against-the-infidel, but as a territorial marker for the young – and by no means militarily strong – state of Portugal against the competing Christian Kingdom of León. In 1226, Marvão was among the earliest towns on the eastern border to receive from Sancho II of Portugal its foral (i.e. royal charter, allowing the town to regulate its administration, borders and privileges).

Another aspect of 13th century statecraft that would bolster the area’s ‘Portugalidade’ (Portuguese identity) would be the settlement of planted Christian colonists from the north (Galicia, the Minho), southern France and Flanders in territories around Marvão. This was done with royal approval, and with the intermediation of the Templars and Hospitallers.

The resettlement of barren areas depopulated by centuries of warfare and bloodshed – or simply abandoned by fleeing Berber refugees – was vital to sustain the new Portuguese kingdom. Many of these settlers were Galicians, and the name of the hamlet of Galegos in Marvão is likely to refer to its 13th–14th century settlers. Other nearby settlements took names from southern France: in the nearby Templar-controlled village of Nisa (Nice), we find hamlets named Tolosa (Toulouse),Montalvão (Montauban) and Arez (Arles) to denote the origins of their settlers.

Perhaps the most important development for Marvão at this time was the donation of borderlands to the military orders. The Templars, strong allies of Alfonso I, had during the 12th century been given lands north of the Tagus, including their headquarters in  Tomar and Castelo Branco, Also given broad responsibility to secure the river passage . In 1199, Sancho I of Portugal awarded lands to the north of Marvão (the Herdade da Açafa).

These extended across the present-day districts of Castelo de Vide and Nisa and into territories near Valencia de Alcántara that now lie in Spain. In 1232, Sancho II of Portugal donated further extensive domains south of the Tagus around Marvão and Portalegre to the Knights Hospitaller, along with the duty to fortify the frontier and help in its repopulation. The Hospitallers would dominate the administration of the region for two centuries, moving their Portuguese headquarters from Leça in Northern Portugal to nearby Crato in 1340.

Much of the architecture to be admired today in Marvão can be attributed to the guiding hand of the Hospitallers in extending the castle and village in the 13th-15th centuries. Hospitaller (Maltese) crosses can be seen on houses throughout Marvão’s walled village, including the door of the church that is the Municipal Museum.

In Marvão, gradual consolidation of Roman power led to the establishment of a substantial Roman town in the 1st century. Ammaia occupied up to 25 hectares, and with a population exceeding modern-day Marvão (5000-6000 inhabitants) Ammaia occupied the site of the present-day parish of São Salvador da Aramenha. The town flourished between the 1st century BCE and the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century CE.

Ammaia’s location on the river Sever was the west-east waypoint on trading routes, linking towns such as Scallabis (Santarém), Eboracum (Évora), Olisipo (Lisbon) and Miróbriga (Cacém Santiago) to the provincial capital Emerita Augusta (present- Merida day) via Norba Caesarina (Cáceres).

The mountain of Marvão also would have served as a watchtower providing line-of-sight to the vitally-important Roman bridge at Alcántara. Local agricultural production (olives, wine, figs, cattle) was supplemented by horse-breeding, pottery, and mining activity – notably rock crystal and quartz veins from Marvão on the mountain, together with open cast gold mining on the Tagus to the north.

Roman Ammaia saw the development of improved irrigation and terracing across the Marvão mountain. Chestnut cultivation – Replacing the place dominance of oak is likely to have been introduced at this time. Much of the terracing and ancient watercourses on the mountain Marvão date from this era.

Limited excavations at Ammaia in the past two decades  covering a mere 3,000 m2 (32.292 sq ft) of the town’s area – have revealed the success, provincial expanding town that included running water, a forum, baths, the bridge over the river Sever (near today’s ‘Old Bridge’), and monumental gates (one gate was removed to Castelo de Vide in the 18th century, yet sadly dynamited in 1890).

The Alentejo region, meanwhile, was criss-crossed with efficient Roman roads, providing links to the wider Empire. Fine wares found at the site Ammaia suggest que Ammaia nobility had access to luxury glassware and jewelery, while archeology has Revealed que marble for the forum was imported from across the Empire. The high quality, for example, of the ‘Mosaic of the Muses’  from a Roman villa in nearby Monforte (4th century BCE)  points to the abundant riches to be made to an Alentejo landowner in the Roman era.

Sadly, many artifacts from Ammaia  in particular the series of marble sculptures were removed during the 19th and 20th centuries, notably by the Anglo-Portuguese Robinson family. These items are now in collections such as those of the British Museum.

It is speculative to comment on the population of Marvão at this time. Many carved tombs and burial chambers dot the granite boulders of the landscape around Marvão, suggesting small-scale farming settlements, and some cultural emphasis on burial rites and the afterlife. Excavations of dolmens (e.g. the Cavalinhas dolmen) reveal fetal-position buried skeletons, and grave goods including weaponry (axes, arrowheads), jewellery (necklaces), ceramics and stone idols. Cave art and engravings in the Tagus valley (40 km (25 mi) north of Marvão: 40,000 items) point to a developed culture based on prehistoric norms of agriculture, hunting and transhumance.

Further, ideograms  notably repetitions of spirals  point to both abstract ideas, religious observance, and some astronomical knowledge of lunar and solar cycles. Decorative objects – rock crystal arrowheads, floral and zig-zagged patterned stones (pedras de raio) and ceramics, deity sculptures  also suggest the development of local systems of craftsmanship, hierarchy, magic and celebration. Recent studies of idol plaques have speculated that they depict some kind of owl deity, with their engravings acting as a means to identify the individual buried by clan, marriage and lineage

The castle is part of the Natural Park Serra de São Mamede, on the northern slope of the mountain, in a dominant position over the village and on the strategic line of streak, controlling in the past the crossing of the river Sever, a Tagus River affluent. This fact assured it the attention of several monarchs, expressed on several remodeling campaigns, which gave the monument its current appearance.

In the context of the conquest of Alcacer do Sal, D. Afonso Henriques  took the town from the Moors between 1160 and 1166. By the demarcation of the Castelo Branco Term in 1214  Marvão was already included in Portuguese lands. More important was that D.Sancho II  granted it a charter in 1226.

D. Afonso III  donated the lands of Marvão to the knights of the Order of Malta (1271), later on granted it to his son, Afonso Sanches, along with landlords of Arronches, Vide and Portalegre Castle.

For this reason, at the beginning the reign of D. Dinis (1279-1325), the town and its castle found themselves involved in the dispute between the sovereign and the prince D.Afonso been conquered by the forces of the sovereign in 1299. At the end of the matter, the fields of Marvão, Portalegre Arronches and were replaced by Sintra and Ourem, remaining the first held by the sovereign. This confirmed the Marvão’s charter in 1226 and embarked on its expansion and strengthening of defenses, especially the construction of the tower which began in 1300.

As were other 11th-13th-century castles, the early medieval improvements and development of Marvão castle reflect the innovations brought back by crusading orders from the near east (notably the highly influential Hospitaller castle in Syria, the Krak des Chevaliers). The medieval castle seen in Marvão today mostly post-dates the year 1299, and features numerous characteristics of a crusader-era castle: a tall central keep with raised entrance on the first floor; a series of lower, outlying turrets (some semi-circular); high-placed arrow-slits; open spaces to aid the sheltering and assembly of villagers and troops; a well, and huge rain-collecting cistern to supply water to both keep and the wider castle in the event of siege; bent entrances (both on the village and castle gates) to slow down invaders in the event of breached gates; a series of narrow killing zones (notably, in the triple gate on the village-side of the castle); extensive crenellated battlements and curtain walls that enhanced the natural defences provided by the escarpments of Marvão’s rock.

Was classified as a National Monument in 1922, by a decree on July 4th.

The Castle of Marvao is located in the village and parish of Santa Maria de Marvão, Marvão municipality, Portalegre District.

Perched on a granite crag of the Serra de São Mamede, Marvão’s name is derived from an 8th-century Muladi duke, named Ibn Marwan. Ibn Marwan used the fortress as a power base when establishing an independent statelet (“emirate”, duchy) covering much of modern day Portugal  during the Emirate of Cordoba (884-931 CE). The castle and walled village were further fortified through the centuries, notably under Sancho II of Portugal (13th century) and Dinis of Portugal.

The village has generated significant tourist interest in recent years. It was included in the #1 New York Times bestselling book, ’1000 Places to see Before you Die’. Nobel prize-winning author José Saramago wrote of the village ‘‘From Marvão one can see the entire land…

It is understandable that from this place, high up in the keep at Marvão Castle, visitors may respectfully murmur, ‘How great is the world.’’

 In the 1950′s, author Huldine V. Beamish wrote of Marvão ‘”There is an atmosphere about the district (of Marvão) that is very ancient. At times you have the same peculiar feelings as those evoked by Stonehenge and that amazing druid monument at Callernish in the Isle of Lewis. Picking your way along the steep stony pathways, you would not be at all surprised to meet a Phoenician trader or Roman Soldier. It would be the most natural thing in the world.’.

An annual international classical music festival, under the artistic direction of German conductor Christoph Poppen, was launched in Marvão in July 2014.

Commanding spectacular views across the Tagus basin and Serra de Estrela to the north, the fortified rock of Marvão has been a site of significant strategic importance since the earliest human settlements.

Today lying on the line that divides Portugal and Spain, Marvão has consistently stood on a frontier zone between peoples: Celtici, Vettones and Lusitani (4th-2nd century BCE); Lusitanians and the Romans of Hispania Ulterior (2nd-1st century BCE); migratory Suevi, Alans, Vandals and Visigoths (5th-7th century CE); conquering moors and Visigoths (8th century); muwallad rebels and the Cordoban emirate (9th-10th century); Portuguese nation-builders and Moors (12th-13th century); Templars and Hospitallers (12th-14th century); Portuguese and Castilians (12th century-present day); Liberals and Absolutists (19th century); the fascist regimes of Salazar and Franco (20th century).

Marvão’s natural assets have contributed to the ‘uniqueness’ of this remote village as perceived by visitors today:  as nigh-impregnable ‘eagle’s nest’ fortress perched high on a granite crag, and bordered on the south and west by the Sever river; as vital lookout-point towards the Alcántara Bridge (70 km (43 mi) away), a wide stretch of the Tagus basin and the Serra de Estrela; as a gateway to Portugal from Spain via the Porta da Espada (‘Sword Gate’) mountain pass of the Serra de São Mamede. These assets have ensured its status as the ‘Mui Nobre e Sempre Leal Vila de Marvão’ (Very Noble and Ever-Loyal Town) into the present day.