Portugal has one of the most beautiful villages in the world
The houses and stones hold stories and secrets to discover. In the municipality of Sabugal, Sortelha is one of the most beautiful villages in the world.
Sortelha is one of the most beautiful villages in the world and one of the oldest Portuguese towns. It is one of the most beautiful villages in Portugal, the historic village of Sortelha, located in the municipality of Sabugal, and which was recently considered one of the most beautiful villages in the world. Its alleys show the old houses and the towering castle, with the Manueline pillory and a Renaissance church. There are walls to visit and views that extend to Serra da Estrela.
Situated on top of a hill, over 760 meters above sea level, in a very rugged, granite-like region, Sortelha is a village adorned with boulders and baroque styles, where houses lean and settle.
Portugal has one of the most beautiful villages in the world
This provision of the houses, exposed to the sun, explains the nickname of “lizards” given to its inhabitants.
It is a village enclosed in granite, with streets and alleys surrounded by a circle of walls, guarded by a 13th-century castle.
![Portugal has one of the most beautiful villages in the world one of the most beautiful villages in the world](https://ncultura.pt/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/10687214_726247777422458_1835564128799908089_n-1-e1518118543801.jpg)
Sortelha certainly continues to be one of the most beautiful and beautiful villages in our country, whose dates have been traced and has hardly changed in the last 50 years.
At the time of the Christian Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, Pena Sortelha, as it was then called, constituted itself in defense of the border region, disputed between Portugal and Castile.
![Portugal has one of the most beautiful villages in the world one of the most beautiful villages in the world](https://ncultura.pt/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/sortelha4.jpg)
From 1187 onwards, D. Sancho I (1185-1211) took measures to repopulate the place, and it was his homonymous grandson, D. Sancho II, who granted the town a charter (1228), the probable time when the castle was built.
![Portugal has one of the most beautiful villages in the world one of the most beautiful villages in the world](https://ncultura.pt/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/4420756436_93c3c5521d_b-e1518118582316.jpg)
The village’s fence would benefit from D. Dinis in the 13th century, who, after the signing of the Treaty of Alcanises (1297), established the borders beyond the lands of Riba-Côa.
In the following century, a new fence was erected on the initiative of D. Fernando. In the 15th century it is known that the mayor of the castle was Manuel Sardinha, succeeding him by Pêro Zuzarte.
![Portugal has one of the most beautiful villages in the world one of the most beautiful villages in the world](https://ncultura.pt/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/10548217_695316037182299_3264596578989511057_o-1.jpg)
In 1510, D. Manuel I (1495-1521) renewed the Vila’s charter, emphasizing that its inhabitants were not obliged to give the inn to the great and small of the kingdom, if that was the will of the people of Sortelha.
This sovereign also initiated a campaign of works in the castle, among which the emblematic Manueline on the door remains.
In 1522 Garcia Zuzarte became mayor. At that time, the noble D. Luís da Silveira, chief guard of D. Manuel I and D. João III (1521-1557), acquired the castle, appointing its mayor, conferring on it D. João III the title of Count of Sortelha.
![Portugal has one of the most beautiful villages in the world one of the most beautiful villages in the world](https://ncultura.pt/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/920492_494417727272132_1025797189_o-2-1021x580-e1518118609627.jpg)
Text by Júlio Gil, taken from the book “As Mais Belas Vilas e Aldeias de Portugal” – Editorial Verbo
“Around the granite stone dominates the landscape, giving little place to patches of rye and small chestnut groves crammed by the Baroque. Down below, the greens of the narrow valley.
![Portugal has one of the most beautiful villages in the world one of the most beautiful villages in the world](https://ncultura.pt/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Aldeia_de_Sortelha-e1524316239236.jpg)
On a vertical cliff, dominating, romantic, the castle. Here is not the dimension – even the emblems are of great importance.
![Portugal has one of the most beautiful villages in the world one of the most beautiful villages in the world](https://ncultura.pt/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/sortelha1-1422x800-e1524316482493.jpg)
In reasons of grace and spirit, a door, a staircase, a coat of arms, a small altar, the Pelourinho, we each enter directly into the castle, in a sequence of identities that do not understand each other, moments that do not understand each other – who bought from whom, such is the harmonious integration of forms.
![Portugal has one of the most beautiful villages in the world one of the most beautiful villages in the world](https://ncultura.pt/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/sortelha-pcarvalho-mg-0839-e1524316515663.jpg)
On the edge of Pelorinho – with an arch in the capital, perhaps with the name Sortnel, meaning “a”-erguelha- a meaning on the eaves of the Parish Council, old town hall, delicious and sober architecture of large dimensions, flagstone parapet on the entrance porch, half-buried shops, tiny panes in the sash windows.
![Portugal has one of the most beautiful villages in the world one of the most beautiful villages in the world](https://ncultura.pt/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Castelo-de-Sortelha-rota-5-castelos-e1524316341934.jpg)
From the charming to the square, another old facade is turned, which is also the character. The architectural austerity of the main church contrasts with its precious Mudejar ceiling and more with the baroque decor of the main altar.
If everything in the village is astonishingly sober and severe, adding even more sobriety and severity to this siege of multiform cliffs – where there is no lack of profiles that stimulate identification, granite whims -, everything is also paradoxically tender, welcoming, lyrical”.
Text by José Saramago – Journey to Portugal
Editorial Caminho, 1981 “De Belmonte
the traveler goes to Sortelha on roads that are not good and landscapes that are to be admired. Entering Sortelha in the Middle Ages, and when it is the traveler it is not so meaningful to say the same thing, for example, in the Church of Belmonte
![where does it come from](https://ncultura.pt/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/cdef6a3f628ac46cd9ca06352e60af8c-e1524316376821.jpg)
Portugal has one of the most beautiful villages in the world
Portugal has one of the most beautiful villages in the world What gives this settlement a medieval character is the enormity of the walls that surround it. Thickness of them, refuge from durability, from the sidewalk, the steep streets and, perched on gigantic hulls, the citadel, last of hope, last and perhaps useless. If someone has conquered the outside walls like cyclopeans, it must not have been surrendered by this little castle that seems to be playing”.
Refers to the Church of Santiago, pantheon of Cabrais
![Readers Circle. “Visit the village contained within the fence. Sidewalk that goes up between it from the outskirts: on the right huge rocks overlapping one another; on the left, cliffs into a very deep valley, enter the gate of the fence: on the left is the castle built on peaks of rock: it is a small enclosure with an oblong shape: the village is in an amphitheater to the right on a superior to the castle: the The wall that surrounds it is turreted and connects with the castle: the aggregate of boulders superimposed on one another in which this base is similar to a sugar loaf: boulders more than fathoms high. Text by Alexandre Herculano – Travel Notes, August 28, 1853](https://ncultura.pt/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Sortelha-Guarda-e1524316426973.jpg)
one of the most beautiful villages in the world
Portugal has one of the most beautiful villages in the world
![Over a counter with a hole for throwing flammables, etc. On the jamb of one of the gates of the fence, the measure of a rod and a cubit.” Portugal has one of the most beautiful villages in the world](https://ncultura.pt/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/separador.jpg)
one of the most beautiful villages in the world
Portugal has one of the most beautiful villages in the world
Portugal has one of the most beautiful villages in the world Read too: Culture
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