The Castelo de São Jorge is a largely Moorish castle that has been extensively restored although it still retains its original 11th century design features. The square towers and lack of gun ports reveal the change in the castle’s use to barracks, prison and residence in its later years.
Visiting Castelo de São Jorge
The castle can easily be seen from much of the city, both the battlements and the trees which are an unusual feature in this very urbanised old city. Castelo de São Jorge is open seven days a week and contains an archeological museum and camera obscura within its perimiter.
Guided and self guided audio tours are available and there are toilets on site. I don’t recall their being a cafe onsite although there are plenty within 5 minutes walk.
My Experience
I have visited this castle twice, my most recent visit being part of a long weekend in Lisbon in 2023, detailed in my blog here.
The castle of St George dominates the city of Lisbon, as a castle should and is a spectacular viewpoint. We visited mid afternoon on a Friday and there was quite a queue – maybe 20 minutes. I think it cost €12 entry.
The castle was captured by the Portugese from the Moors in 1147 and for the next two hundred years underwent extensive modifications and improvements but then suffered inevitable decline as warfare changed and the 1755 earthquake badly damaged what was left. It wasn’t until the 1930s that restoration work began, stripping away later additions and repairing the medieval core.
The castle is huge and there are multiple lines and zones of defence. We spent 2 hours there and we didn’t get to see the palace or archeological museum so allow a half day really. There are so many battlements to walk along and towers (empty) to look out from it certainly isn’t a quick visit. It does lack any sort of information boards though and this means either having to download an audio tour – which is intrusive – or having to look stuff up as you wander around. There are a few 17th or 18th century cannons on the battlements and also a lot of peacocks wandering the grounds!
I honestly don’t remember much about my first visit to this castle. I was ill when I visited Lisbon so it was more of a gentle stroll around than a detailed tour of the castle. It’s on my list to return, like so many other places but Covid has meant cancelling the 2021 visit we had booked.
There is however a good guide on the Wiki site referenced below and this is copied from there:
The castle is in the centre of Lisbon, on a hill, while many of its walls extend around the citadel into the civil parishes that surround it to the east and south.
The castle’s plan is roughly square, and it was originally encircled by a wall, to form a citadel. The castle complex consists of the castle itself (the castelejo), some ancillary buildings (including the ruins of the royal palace), gardens, and a large terraced square from which an impressive panorama of Lisbon is visible. The main entrance to the citadel is a 19th-century gate surmounted by the coat-of-arms of Portugal, the name of Queen Maria II, and the date 1846. This gate permits access to the main square (Praça d’Armas), which is decorated with old cannons and a bronze statue of Afonso Henriques, the Portuguese monarch who took the castle from the Moors. This statue is a copy of the 19th-century original, by the romantic sculptor António Soares dos Reis, which is located near Guimarães Castle in northern Portugal.
The remnants of the royal palace are located near the main square, but all that is left are some walls and a few rebuilt rooms such as the Casa Ogival. It now hosts the Olissipónia, a multimedia show about the history of Lisbon.
The medieval castle is located toward the northwest corner of the citadel, at its highest point. Hypothetically, during a siege, if attackers managed to enter the citadel, the castle was the last stronghold, the last place in which to take refuge. It is rectangular, with ten towers. A wall with a tower and a connecting door divides the castle courtyard into halves. A series of stairways allow visitors to reach the walkway atop the wall and the towers, from which magnificent views of Lisbon can be enjoyed. The Tower of Ulysses (where the Torre do Tombo archive used to be) had in 1998 a camera obscura installed[14] that allows spectators a 360-degree view of the city and Tagus River.
Apart from its main walls, the castle is protected, on its southern and eastern sides, by a barbican (barbacã), a low wall that prevented siege engines from approaching the main castle walls. The northern and western sides of the castle, on the other hand, were naturally protected by the steep hillside sloping downward from the castle’s foundations. The castle is also partially encircled by a moat, now dry. The main entrance is fronted by a stone bridge across the moat. On the west side, there is a long curtain wall extending downhill, ending at a tower (the Torre de São Lourenço). This tower guarded a gate in the Cerca Fernandina.
Castelo de São Jorge Photo Gallery
The first gallery is from 2023 visit:
These next photos were taken in the dim and distant past of 2004 and they were not taken in RAW so these are pretty much unedited jpgs. I’d like to think my own skill in photography has moved on since then too so these may not be ideal pictures. Sorry!
History
Saint George’s Castle can be seen from almost anywhere in the city. Its oldest parts date from the 6th century, when it was fortified by the Romans, Visigoths, and eventually the Moors. It served as a royal Moorish residence, until Portugal’s first king, Afonso Henriques, captured it in 1147 with the help of northern European crusaders on their way to the Holy Land. It was later dedicated to St. George, the patron saint of England, commemorating the Anglo-Portuguese pact dating from 1371, and became the royal palace until another one (that was destroyed in the Great Earthquake) was built in today’s Comercio Square.
It’s now an oasis of peace, but just past the main gate is a statue of King Afonso Henriques and a series of cannons, reminding you of its original purpose. What remains of the Alcaçovas Palace where medieval kings lived, is a stone building now housing a restaurant, and round the back, a small archaeological museum in three underground chambers (including the one where Vasco da Gama was received by King Manuel in 1499, after his voyage to India).
Most of the castle was destroyed over the years, especially in the Great Earthquake of 1755, but still includes a long extension of walls and 18 towers that were restored in the early 20th century. Visitors can climb the towers and walk along the ramparts for the most breathtaking views of Lisbon (which confirm it as one of the most beautiful cities in the world), or relax in the gardens where peacocks, geese and ducks strut around. One of the castle’s inner towers, the Tower of Ulysses, holds the Câmara Escura, a periscope that projects sights from around the city.
References
The castle’s website with full visitor information is here.
The Wikipedia entry for the castle is here.
The history above is copied from the Go Lisbon page here.