Trancoso

It was to be a 2 town-and-castle day. After Belmonte and the day's anta, we drove to pretty Trancoso, a small walled town with a small castle, dating back to Moorish times, 9th-10th centuries, and which, among other things, offers ample shaded and level parking right outside the Kings Gate.

It was here, in Trancoso, in 1282, that the king Dom Dinis
married 12-year-old Isabel of Aragon

Outside the King's Gate; the walls are pretty intermittent

Where the wedding took place (we surmised)

Big plaza

Similar to the hankie tree we so admired in England

More nice public landscaping

More walls and tower

Handrails were not invented until the Enlightenment

Sic transit, Gloria (someone's wash hanging out)

Portal for Gothic cars and trucks

At last, the castle

Most interestingly, the castle's history is inscribed onto the steps
(I'll spare you the next thousand years)

10th century Keep

21st century Medieval fair

Partial-pano

Ditto; it's actually quite small for a castle, not much larger than
some of the fortified residences we have seen

 

Burn this image onto your retina (the cross and the castle)

It's on all the city lamp posts

Beautiful lanes and alleys throughout (a kind
resident actually hid behind the bushes for me
to get this shot) 

Tile street signs

In the former Jewish quarter, the doors and
windows on this building are tromp l'oeil;
there is a museum and memorial

This, we construed, was the sign put on a
"convert's" house (after the Portuguese
Inquisition arrived)

Shot of the day: Flutterment; all kinds of flutterment going on