S. António Gates

Monsanto

The Santo António Gates provided an exit from the village on the west side over an old path that further on forks, leading to the Capela de S. Pedro de Vir-a-Corça or heading to Relva (an important connected place). On the village’s opposite side are the Espírito Santo Gates. Both points were good markers of the limits of the urban settlement before the construction of the fortification in the third quarter of the 18th century. This gate has a straight lintel, integrating various slits for firing, over which was the royal coat of arms, recently stolen, without a parapet and with an angular coping. It has an attached sentry house, built after the gate, seeing that its foundation covers one of the firing slits. These gates, isolated today, were a part of the so-called “wall of the Count of Lippe”, who for the first time came to fortify the village.