Valença Fortress

The fortress at Valença is one of the best-preserved examples of Vauban-style military architecture in Portugal. Built primarily in the 17th century on the site of an earlier medieval castle, it consists of two fortified enclosures — the lower and upper towns — surrounded by a double ring of star-shaped bastions and moats. The whole complex is remarkably intact, with the full circuit of walls walkable and commanding views from the top of each bastion.

Inside the walls, the old town has been largely given over to shops selling linen, towels, and household goods aimed at Spanish day-trippers crossing the border for bargains. This commercial activity can feel at odds with the historic setting, but venture past it and you find quiet streets, the Romanesque church of Santa Maria dos Anjos, and from the ramparts a fine view across the Minho River to the Spanish town of Tui and the Eiffel-designed railway bridge connecting the two.

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A story
The fortress at Valença was designed by the military architect Luís Serrão Pimentel using Vauban principles — a French system of geometric bastion fortifications that became the dominant European military architecture of the 17th and 18th centuries. The Portuguese built some of the finest Vauban-style fortresses in the world, largely because they spent much of the period after 1640 in a state of war or cold war with Spain. Valença and its twin across the river, Tui, faced each other across the Minho as potential adversaries for centuries; today they are linked by a pedestrian bridge.