Regarding the antiquity of the Castle of Lamego , almost all the consulted authors refer that the castle “is the work of the Moors” and prior to the foundation of nationality. From the primitive, only the keep (12th century), part of the old wall and the cistern (13th century) remain.
The donjon, about twenty meters high, is square in shape and has slits of light on its faces, some of which were altered in the 16th century to be turned into windows, by order of the last count of Marialva, D. Francisco Coutinho, perhaps with the intention of giving the tower a housing function. It has a square of arms in the shape of an irregular hexagon, whose wall, with about ninety meters of perimeter, is equipped with an adarve, accessible from the north side by a flight of stairs.
Between 1939 and 1940, when the centenaries of the Foundation and Restoration of the nationality were celebrated, the castle underwent restorations, with the bell towers and bells that existed at the top of the tower being removed to add the battlements. Access to the old town of Castelo is through two open porches in the wall. Whoever enters on the north side passes through the arch called “Porta dos Figos or Fogos”, also already called “Porta da Vila or Aguião”, while the door on the opposite side is called “Porta do Sol”. Next to the latter we find an interesting emblazoned house that belonged to the Cistercian Order and later became the wheel house.
On the north side there is still the Casa da Torre, which is serving as the headquarters of the National Wiretapping Corps. The City Hall functioned in this building until 1834, when it moved to the Casa da Relação (now Paço do Bispo).
In the middle of Rua do Castelo we can see the chapel of Senhora do Socorro, on whose outer wall there is an interesting panel of tiles with the inscription “NS do Coro 1671”. Next to it there was another chapel of invocation to S. Salvador, where the primitive Sé would have been.
The Lamego Cistern , located outside the Plaza de Armas, is made of rectangular and domed ashlar, with a ribbed warhead supported by wide straps supported by pillars. About twenty meters long and ten meters wide, it is considered “one of the best examples of cisterns in Portuguese castles” (General Direction of National Buildings and Monuments cit. Laranjo, 1994, p.52).
In November 2013, the Lamego Cistern reopened and returned to the light of day, after having undergone important requalification works. Images, sounds, letters, experiences, traditions, became available to the public, in a space that is now assumed as a Memory Center.
Upon entering the Cistern, the visitor delves into the past, where multiple memories are projected uninterruptedly on the stones that were once just spectators. A sound design is associated with the space, recalling 800 years of everyday sounds: the bell, the rooster, the bricklayer, the floor, the procession, the crying and the laughter.
Lamego Castle is classified as a National Monument by the Decree of 16 June 1910.
