Sortelha Parish Council - R. do Encontro 2

Sortelha? A charm with impressive walls. When you go through the entrance of the villa door you feel like a strange sensation that takes you to another era. Cobbled streets and granite houses that fit together like puzzle pieces. When going up to the castle, looking out on the balcony of Pilatos is one of the most spectacular views of the entire fortress. Of course it is also worth noting the Manuelino style hair style as well as several janelas of the same style. And to see Sortelha from all possible angles, you can stroll along its entire wall and enjoy impressive views. A highly recommended visit that you will surely want to see again and recommend it to all your friends.

The Sortelha Parish Council, located on top of a hill at more than 760 meters above sea level in a rugged granite region. Sortelha is a village decorated with cliffs and baroque, where the houses touch and settle. This arrangement of houses exposed to the sun explains the name of geckos given to its inhabitants. It is a granite village with typical medieval streets and alleys closed by a circle of walls guarded by a magnificent 13th century castle. Sortelha remains certainly one of the most beautiful towns in our country, whose layout has changed little in the last 500 years.

Beautiful location ... it seems that we are in the medieval era, with magnificent scenery, I advise the visit.

Very beautiful and peaceful place, fantastic 360° view

Fantastic and wonderful battlements of this castle, where extremely well preserved are the dwellings of yesteryear ... still with some inhabitants.

Sortelha, surmounted by a castle that stands out in the landscape. Houses and houses very esteemed and with beautiful curtains in the windows what gives them a certain gracefulness in contrast to the rigidity of the stone. Handicraft store inviting you to enter and observe closely the typical local products. Village very well preserved and with adequate infrastructure to those who visit it.

Sortelha Castle is located in the town of the same name, Sabugal municipality, Guarda district, in Portugal. Rising over a granitic massif in a dominant position over the Riba-Côa valley, the crossing area between the Iberian Plateau and the Cova da Beira depression, it forms part of what is considered one of the best preserved Historical Villages of Beira Interior. At the time of the Christian Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, Pena Sortelha, as it was then called, was a defense of the border region, disputed between Portugal and Castile. From 1187, D. Sancho I (1185-1211) took steps to repopulate the place, and it was his namesake grandson, D. Sancho II who granted charter to the village (1228), probable time of the building of the castle. The fence of the village would be benefited by D. Dinis in the thirteenth century who, after the signing of the Treaty of Alcanises (1297), set the borders beyond the lands of Riba-Côa. In the following century, a new fence was erected at the initiative of D. Fernando. In the fifteenth century it is known that the mayor of the castle was Manuel Sardinha, succeeding him Pêro Zuzarte. In 1510, D. Manuel I (1495-1521) renewed the charter of the village, mentioning that its inhabitants were not obliged to give lodging to the great and small of the kingdom, if this was the will of the people of Sortelha. This sovereign also started a campaign of works in the castle, among which remains the emblematic Manueline over the door. In 1522 Garcia Zuzarte became High Mayor. In that century, the noble D. Luís da Silveira, the guardian of D. Manuel I and D. João III (1521-1557), acquired the castle, becoming his mayor, conferring D. João III the title of Earl of Sortelha.