Aldeias Históricas de Portugal

Villages

Bulwark

Monsanto

Monsanto

The current car park and overlook at the entrance to the village is locally known as the Bulwark square, or Baluarto, in its popular form. This platform does not appear to correspond in fact to a bulwark – a protruding polygonal element designed to defend the flanks of the corners of the fortifications with artillery and which the pieces today would stage –, because their layout in an arch only presents the angular extremities. This solution appears to be inspired on this military architecture, but it lacks the historical veracity that the place name stubbornly looks for. Even so, it may be a reminder of a firing platform used in a late episode of the Peninsular Wars (20th century).