We rented a car again and our first trip this time took us about an hour and forty minutes to Castelo de Almourol. It is a castle on a little island in the Tagus river. It used to be the border between Portuguese territory and the Moors. It was almost never attacked because the island was small and the current was too fast to navigate reliably. We got lucky during our visit. They often close the castle after heavy rains when the river level rises. We arrived at 1:00 just when they stopped running the boat. The next boat was scheduled for 2:30. This would not have been an issue except for the heavy rain.
You have to take a boat to get there and the boat operator explained that they would take us but they were not liable if something bad happened. We also didn’t see any life vests on the tiny boat we took. Everyone lived and we had a great time exploring. There was a tour guide with another group that was speaking English so we tried to stay somewhat close to them to learn about the castle. It was first built in the 1st century BC and then remodeled in 1100 AD. Later control was granted to the Knights Templar. As of now it is still controlled by the Portuguese military. We saw them come out and check the level of the river at one point.
There are a few different legends about the castle:
Dom Ramiro was a cruel Visigoth warrior who controlled the castle in the 9th or 10th century. He killed a Moorish woman and her daughter over a disagreement about a cup of water. Soon after, he captured a young Moorish boy, who unknown to Dom Ramiro, was the son of the murdered woman. The boy slowly poisoned Dom Ramiro’s wife to death. While Dom Ramiro was away at war, the boy fell in love with Ramiro’s daughter, Beatriz. Dom Ramiro returned from war with a knight to whom he had promised Beatriz’s hand in marriage. The Morrish boy quickly confessed his true identity and crimes to Beatriz and they ran away together, never to be found. It is said that Dom Ramiro soon died of remorse. Legend has it, that on some nights with a full moon you can see the boy hugging Beatriz with Dom Ramiro kneeling at their feet and begging for their forgiveness.
The other legend takes place in the 12 century, when the lord of Almourol castle, an Arab emir name Almorolon’s beautiful daughter fell in love with a Christian knight. She would sneak the knight into the castle so they could spend the night together. One night the Christian knight opened the gate to his comrades. who captured the castle. The emir and his heart-broken daughter threw themselves from the parapet into the river and perished.
It was some kind of miracle but no one got upset and we actually had fun waiting in the rain for the boat, which arrived at 3:00.
Our view of the castle from the boat.
We were all able to go to the top of the castle but because of the rain I was the only one to attempt the stairs in the photo. The path along the wall was way too narrow to take the kids up on.
I think it was the promise of a boat ride but the kids stayed really positive the whole time. Lindsay was taking pictures so we tasked Max with holding Gwen’s hand while we were at the top of the tower.