Muralhas de Guimaraes

City Gate and City Walls in Guimarães

Muralhas De Guimarães
CC BY-SA 4.0 / Reis Quarteu

The Muralhas or Walls of Guimaraes were built around the 9th century. The first part to be walled was the upper city or village, called Vila do Castelo. Construction of the wall started in the reign of D. Afonso III and was completed in the reign of D. Dinis. The wall stretched about two kilometres and had defensive towers in between. 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 made up of two villages, and it was some time later on that it became a single city, due to these defensive walls. It had eight gates known as ‘Ports’, three of them with a tower, and three turrets and two turrets.

You can walk along the top of the old walls for a short distance, and it is a pleasant way to survey a part of the town. This part of the walls also shows the Porta do Burgo.


The Muralhas de Guimaraes appears in our Complete Guide to Visiting Guimarães!

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Visiting Muralhas de Guimaraes

Duration: 20 minutes

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