Castle of Alcoutim (Old)

The Castle of Alcoutim is a medieval castle built onto a prehistoric castro located in the civil parish of Alcoutim, municipality of the same name, in the Portuguese Algarve. About one kilometre north of the town of Alcoutim, the old castle is one of the more important Islamic military structures in the Algarve: it is both an important historical visit for tourists and histographically significant to the Muslim occupation of the region. Commonly confused with the younger Castle of Alcoutim, the old castle was abandoned in the 11th century, but its exploration and excavation was elaborated by archaeologists in the 20th century.HistoryThe initial construction occurred in the 8th-9th century, although the space was occupied since the Bronze Age. The option to locate in this location, and not solely in the town of Alcoutim, has never been clearly explained. Likely, its conditions (the level of visibility) and the use of the original Roman structures (identified in the neighbouring town of Lourinhã) played a part in the early construction of this fortress. What is certain is that the Old Castle was the centre of a vast territory, influenced by the river activities along the Guadiana, and on the other hand, by the level of mineral exploration in the region. A few lithic fragments, for example, were found in the Muslim living spaces of the structure. It was the discovery of a few graves nearby from this period, during the archaeological excavations begun in 1986, that contributed to a better understanding of the site's roots. Similar excavations at various levels on the site, allowed the determination of a range of occupation beginning with the Bronze Age and extending into the 11th century.