Castle of Mertola

Mértola,
Castle of Mertola Castle of Mertola is one of the popular Region located in ,Mértola listed under Landmark in Mértola ,

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The Castle of Mértola is a well-preserved medieval castle located in the civil parish and municipality of Mértola, in the Portuguese district of Beja.HistoryIn 318 B.C., during the sequence of the invasion and sack of Tyre, by Alexander the Great, the Phoenicians founded the Myrtilis or New Tyre. The region became an important trading center frequented by Phoenicians and Carthaginians, thanks to the abundance of river and land routes connecting it to the southern portion of the peninsula. Before the invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, it held commercial importance among these civilizations.During the Roman epoch, the settlement was developed, becoming the centre of the mineral extract and agriculture in the Baixo Alentejo region. Mértola was encircled by a wall system that paralleled what remains today, but much grander. The Beja road crossed the walls in the north, and by 44 B.C. Julius Cesar had renamed the town Myrtilis Julia. The first historical reference to this settlement existed in the chronicles of the Swabian bishop, Idácio, who narrated an episode dating to 440 AD, and inferred the existence of this fortified site occupied by Swabians and Visigoths.It was destroyed and sacked by barbarian hordes, then Muslim Umayyad Africans, who reconstructed the centre for their own necessities, where the name Myrtilis was shortened to Martula. Ibn Qasi was governor of the Taifa of Mértola it is likely that defensive works during his rule (1144-1151) were carried out to the castle.

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