Freixo Espada à Cinta Castle

Freixo de Espada à Cinta already existed back in the year of 1150. Some say that this Castle might date from that period.
The construction of the Donjon might date from the reign of king D. Dinis (1279 to 1325) and still nowadays it is the symbol of the fortification.
The Castle has been receiving several conservation works over the centuries, nevertheless in the 19th century, the Castle’s interior started working as a cemetery and part of the defensive walls were destroyed.
From this medieval Castle are left nowadays the heptagonal tower, named by the population as the “rooster tower” (“torre do galo”) or even “clock tower” (“torre do relógio”), and some parts of the walls.

The origin of the name “Freixo de Espada à Cinta” is connected to several stories, one of the most famous one says that once, a Christian knight, in order to hide from his persecutors, would have climb an ash tree (“freixo”) and hung his sword on the tree’s trunk. As the persecutors came upon an ash tree with a sword on his trunk, they got scared with that strange scene and ran away.