Description Trancoso

With a past alongside the History of Portugal, Trancoso is a town protected by walls where the medieval atmosphere is preserved in the narrow streets and stone houses. The plateau where it is located, at 870 meters above sea level, gave it a strategic position in the defense of the border with Spain and transformed it into an important square of arms during the Middle Ages.

The imposing Porta d'El Rei is the main entrance to the walls and also a tribute to D. Dinis who here celebrated his marriage to Isabel de Aragão, in 1282, in the Chapel of São Bartolomeu. D. Dinis offered the village to Rainha Santa in dowry and instituted the free fair, at the origin of the great Fair of Trancoso that still takes place from August 15th, the day of the patron saint Nossa Senhora da Fresta.

The labyrinth of stone streets leads us to the center of the village where Pelourinho is located, at the crossroads between Vila Velha and Vila Nova. In the oldest part, we find the Castle very disputed between Moors and Christians and definitively conquered by the strength of D. Afonso Henriques in 1160, and the Church of São Pedro, where the mysterious Bandarra (1500-45), a shoemaker, rests for eternity poet who prophesied the loss of independence from Portugal in 1580 and its restoration in 1640.

It was in Vila Nova that the population settled. In the century. XV there was an important Jewish community here that contributed a lot to the development of commerce. The memory of that time remains in the architecture of the houses with two doors (one wide, entrance to the store, and the other narrow, with access to the residence area) and the Casa do Gato Negro (Largo Luís de Albuquerque), one of the most emblematic of the village identified as the former synagogue and residence of the rabbi.

Here lived the Magriço, one of the Twelve of England, protagonist of a historical episode between Portugal and England in the century. XIV. It was also in this village that, in 1809, General Beresford set up a headquarters when he was in Portugal as an ally against the Napoleonic invasions. Five years later, Beresford would be awarded the title of first Earl of Trancoso.

On May 29, the Battle of São Marcos (1385) is celebrated, the forerunner of the great victory of the Battle of Aljubarrota against Castile, where D. João I defended and consolidated Portuguese independence. On that day, bread and oranges are distributed to children on the plateau of São Marcos where the battle was fought because according to tradition the Portuguese will have left the Castilians to "bread and oranges".