Chaves – What to see

Chapel of Our Lady of Lapa

Chapel with the main façade in counterweight pediment, with a portal, windows, and oculus surrounded by vegetalista decoration, of cut something geometric.
The open crown on the window corresponds to the same decorative motif as the window frames, although they are more stylized. The vegetalista decoration that lines the portal is an excellent work of bed, imitating patterns of carving.
The cornices of the facades N. and S. reveal, between the wedges of the main façade and the pillar planted in the final third of their facades, a small formal difference with the remaining cornice that runs through these façades, indicating a change of the front facade of the chapel, in an indefinite moment.
On a jamb of the door of the sacristy, an interesting box of alms, in wood, painted.
The sacristy has a well-fitted washbasin, with a full arch, with a shell, underlined by a protruding cornice, with a faucet inscribed in a flordelised motif and a circular, fluted basin.

Chapel of Our Lady of Loreto

Religious architecture, Mannerist. Chapel of a simple longitudinal plant, with choir-high. The main façade with stacked wedges shot in pediment and torn by the portal of straight dude surmounted by a pediment surpassed by small oculus.

Castle of Monforte de Rio Livre

It owes its name to the existence on the site of a so designated medieval county that was extinguished in the last century.
Most of the set currently built dates from the late thirteenth and first half of the following. In its interior, existed the House of the House, the parochial church and the chapel of Our Lady of the Prado, buildings still standing in century XVIII.
The keep, built in 1312, is the main remaining element and one that gives the castle the military image par excellence.

Castle of Santo Estêvão

In 1212, the castle already existed, as it was this year conquered by Afonso IX of Leo, in the process of presumed defense of the rights of his daughter, Infanta D. Teresa.
For nineteen years, the fortress was in possession of the Castilian monarch, only being returned to the Portuguese crown in 1231, date in which was celebrated the agreement of peace of the Sabugal.
The strategic position of St. Stephen determined that some of the contacts between the two peninsular crowns passed through him, as happened in 1253 when D. Afonso III went to the castle to receive his future wife, D. Beatriz.

Castro de Curalha

The village is surrounded by three lines of walls, defining an enclosure of ellipsoidal contour. The inner structure has a row of rectangular constructions attached to the wall in the excavated area.
Another set of houses, in the central part of the room, also have a rectangular shape with a common partition wall, being perfectly aligned and with a door to the same side, which suggests a street that would serve them.

City Hall Building

Built in the first half of the 19th century for the residence of António de Souza Pereira Coutinho, Morgado de Vilar de Perdizes, in the noblest area of the village of Chaves.
It did not take long to change its use, since, in 1861, still unfinished, it is acquired by the Municipal Council, which finishes the works, for use by the municipal administration, closer to the power centers of the village.
Its four walls highlight the verticality of the building, through pilasters that divide each of them into three bodies. This is the visual effect that reinforces the main façade that is projected in the current Camões Square.

Fort of São Francisco

In 1629, the Provincial Chapter of the Order of the Soledade of San Francisco celebrated in Vila Viçosa, presided over by Father Frei Bernardino da Serra, determined to look for a new convent in Chaves, the place chosen was a hill bordering the village called Alto da Pedisqueira.
Thus, in 1635, the first stone was laid for the construction of the convent, dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary. For its construction much contributed the loan of its patron, the 8th Duke of Bragança, D. João IV of Portugal.
It was also the scene of General Silveira’s victory against the French of Soult’s army in 1809.

S. Neutel Fort

Vauban strong, with a double defensive line and internal pit, with a star-shaped configuration similar to that of the neighboring Fort of San Francisco, built during the Restoration Wars.
In addition to the magnitude of its volumetry, it is notable for the delicacy of some of its elements, such as the armored portal, with an inscription referring to its construction, the dive source implanted in the interior moat, next to the arches on pillars, and the Mannerist chapel of Our Lady of Brotas erected in the interior.

Church of the Misericordia

The façade of the temple, granite, preceded by a stone staircase, is detailed and carefully decorated with pilasters and windows. The interior, with a single nave, has the walls entirely covered with decorated tiles, from the 18th century, illustrating various motifs and biblical scenes (Canan Weddings, Lazarus Resurrection, Multiplication of Bread).
On the ceiling, painted wood from the middle of the eighteenth century (1743), is also represented the scene of the Visitation. Lastly, the altar with gilded carving is profusely decorated with cherubs, curls, and scrolls. The rear façade of the building has the peculiarity of setting and taking advantage of the external facade of the medieval urban fence.

Palace of the Dukes of Bragança

Denominated Palace of the Duke of Bragança, honoring the memory of D. Afonso, the illegitimate son of D. João I, who married Dª. Brites, daughter of the Constable D. Nuno Alvares Pereira, chose, after marriage, the then village of Chaves to establish residence. D. Afonso had his palace built near the castle, whose construction began in 1410 and completed in 1446.
The purpose of its construction seems to have been to install the Main Guard barracks and the military prison there. It is in these military functions that the building, a result of the combination of different buildings of different dates, with additions and transformations, possibly supplanting the remains of the old ducal palace, will reach a monumental size, with a large gate, surmounted by laborious and artistic real weapons in stone.
Already had another floor, when there worked the barracks of an infantry regiment, considered afterward useless and inaesthetic.

Pelourinho de Chaves

Among the structures erected at the time is the pillory, a major symbol of judicial autonomy, although it had been lowered in 1870, to be reinstated in 1910, preceding a new displacement and replacement, as happened with several copies in the country, giving rise to small interventions of restoration.
Its main feature is the capital, where an inverted truncated pyramid coined on the faces – one of which bearing a coat of arms – coexists with twisted columns in the corners and a fifth in the center to support the armillary sphere.