In the old settlement of Redondos, at the intersection of Rua de Santa Cruz and Rua do Castelo, at the highest point of a hill, in a place called “Castelo Velho”, lie a thousand years of history….
The current settlement of Buarcos was made up of 2 distinct settlements, Buarcos and Redondos, both important and both with a Town Hall. The current upper part of Buarcos was called Redondos. The lower part was called Buarcos.
Redondos had a town hall until 1794. On that date the municipality of Redondos was annexed by the municipality of Buarcos and the municipality of Buarcos was renamed Buarcos and Redondos.
Buarcos was the seat of the municipality between 1342 and 1836.
In 1836 the municipality of Buarcos disappeared and became part of the municipality of Figueira da Foz.
Redondos had an important castle in the 11th century, of which there are still traces, the “Castelo de Redondos”, also known as “Torre de Redondos” or “Castelo de Buarcos”.
Due to its strategic position, the Castle of Redondos defended Buarcos and Redondos from incursions and landings of enemy troops for many centuries. It was an example of a medieval “domus fortis”, with a quadrangular plan, divided internally into three or four floors, in whose walls arrows were torn. The ensemble was crowned by battlements.
Today there is only a small part of the Castle, a wedge of the old medieval tower, at the intersection of Rua de Santa Cruz and Rua do Castelo, at the highest point of a hill, in a place called “Castelo Velho”.
It was mentioned for the first time in 1096, in a donation made by Abbot Pedro to the See of Coimbra.
There was once a hill fort here, dominated by a Phoenician colony, and later, in 46 BC, it was occupied by the Romans. Almost a thousand years later, the Arab chief Abdurrhaman, in 844, ordered the construction of a castle to defend the coast against the incursions of Norman pirates.
In the 11th century, from 1070 to 1080, the castle was occupied by Count Sisenando (1st governor of the district of Coimbra), who restored it, having built two towers next to the wharf and a breastplate connecting to the old fortress, for protection from the corsairs that invaded the coastal villages.
In the 12th century, the Castle of Redondos is mentioned again in a donation of D. Afonso Henriques (1112 – 1185), of June 1143.
In the 13th century, there is news of the lease of the Tower of Buarcos to João Retundo, made by the lord of Eimide (1256). Still in the 13th century, a list of properties of the Monastery of Santa Cruz de Coimbra mentions the tower of Buarcos (“ar habent torrem de buarcos cum as vinea”).
In the 14th century, during the reign of King Afonso IV (1325-1357), the castle served as a prison.
In the 15th century, in 1411, D. João I (1385-1433) donated the lordship of Buarcos to his son D. Pedro, Duke of Coimbra, who added two bastions to the “castle” of Buarcos and provided it with artillery pieces. The Torre de Redondos was enlarged by opening a moat and then joining it to another tower located nearby.
In the 16th century, the Castle of Buarcos belonged to the Cathedral of Coimbra and, in the “Book of Farms and Rents” of the University of Coimbra, in 1579, it is stated that the “Castle of Buarcos” has a strong tower for defense, also called “Torre de Cima da Igreja” or “do Mosteiro de Santa Cruz”, to distinguish it from another, the Torre de Baixo or Gonçalo Pryvado, suggesting the existence of a double defensive structure.
THE OLDEST BUILDING IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF FIGUEIRA DA FOZ
In the 17th century, in 1697, D. Leonardo de Santo Agostinho donated the chief wardship of the Tower of Redondos to his nephew Pedro Viegas de Novais.
In the 18th century, in 1788, in the information on the rights of the Monastery of Santa Cruz over the town of Redondos, the Tower of Redondos is mentioned.
With the construction of the Fortress of Buarcos, from the 14th century until the 17th century, the Castle of Buarcos lost strategic importance, fell into ruin and almost disappeared.
In the 19th century, in 1843, Carlos Van Zeller and the Polish Count Athanasius Raczynski (1788-1874) refer to Redondos Castle when it still had battlements and walls.
On October 30, 1854, the Ministry of Public Works decided to demolish the castle, having been“saved and repaired [the] wedge of the torrião, by the hydrographic engineer Francisco Maria Pereira da Silva, to serve as a mark for the seafarers and as a sign for the geodesic and topographic works of the kingdom“.
Of an “old square castle that stood overlooking the village”, also known as “Torre” or “Castelo de Redondos”, mentioned for the first time in 1096, in a donation made by Abbot Pedro to the Cathedral of Coimbra, and also mentioned in 1143, in a donation by King Afonso Henriques, only the wedge of a turret remained, “saved and repaired by the engineer Francisco Maria Pereira da Silva to serve as a mark for seafarers and as a sign for the geodesic and topographic works of the kingdom”.
The ruins of the Tower of Redondos are classified as a Property of Municipal Interest, by Decree No. 2/96, published in Diário da República, I Série-B, No. 56, of March 6, 1996.
The Castle of Redondos can be seen in an image by Pedro Teixeira from 1634 and its ruins from the middle of the 19th century came to us through a drawing published in an article by António Júlio de Valle e Sousa, entitled “Viagens no Paiz (XXV) Buarcos”, of the Semanário Ilustrado “Branco e Negro”, dated 12-09-1897, pages 371 to 376, and through a monograph by Maurício Augusto Águas Pinto and Raimundo Esteves, “Aspectos da Figueira da Foz”, published by the Municipal Tourism Commission, dated 1945. There is also a cork miniature in the Municipal Museum by the archaeologist and distinguished Figueiran researcher Goltz de Carvalho.
It is the oldest building in the municipality of Figueira da Foz.
