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The Faia Brava Nature Reserve has the purpose of safeguarding the environment, natural resources and the conservation of endangered species. The reserve is open to all, however it is recommended that the visit is accompanied for a more complete experience.
It was the first private nature reserve to be classified by the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests.
It is an authentic monumental space where it is important to highlight the old walls, the ruins of the Palace of Cristóvão de Moura, the five hundred year old pillory, the main church, the medieval cistern and the vestiges that confirm the existence of New Christians.
It is a curious and unique stone monument built around the year I A.D. This tower is 12 meters high and has three partial stories, whose function is still not clear. Some of the hypotheses are that it may have been a temple, a prison, a patretorium (a general's tent or central area of a Roman camp), a mansio (inn) or even a Roman villa.
This castle would have previously been a Lusitanian fortification. However, it was the Romans who made it grow militarily. During the reign of King Dinis, fortification and enlargement work was carried out, and only the wall with the adarve, cubels, five medieval doors and two sturdy square towers have survived to the present day.
Also referred to as the Castelo das Cinco Quinas (Castle of the Five Corners), due to the unusual shape of its pentagonal keep, it is believed to have been commissioned by King Dinis at the same time as he granted it its charter at the end of the 13th century. It served its military function once in a while, but also as a prison, having been abandoned and its walls dismantled for the construction of several houses in the town and the castle's square of arms began to serve as a cemetery, all this in the 19th century, and only in the 1940s of the 20th century was it possible to stop this degradation.
The Guarda Cathedral, commissioned during the reign of King João I, was only completed 150 years later, creating the perfect symbiosis between Gothic and Manueline. The interior has a magnificent chancel in Ançã stone, made by the Coimbra workshop of João de Ruão, and is the greatest work of erudite sculpture of the later Renaissance period.
Edifício da Alfândega, Largo 25 de Abril 6355-217 Vilar Formoso
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