Jardim do Castelo de São Jorge

I toured a medieval fort and castle. I mean…like in Monty Python and Camelot, and Princess Bride, and The Court Jester. Only flippin’ real. I’m not gonna lie, I gasped when I saw it. It was astounding.

Castelo de S. Jorge was founded by the Arabs in 11th century. Phoenicians and Romans lived there early on. The original building was an Islamic fort high on a hill. Strategic advantage? Check! Until those dang Crusaders showed up, conquered it, and then topped it with their own defensive gewgaws. It housed kings and governors, and is now a national monument.

The striations of each civilization are visible in the architecture. Low down, construction is of rough-hewn stone cobbled together in thick globs of friable mortar. The next layer features bricks fitted closely with thin lines of a sturdier paste. And then more modern touches - plaster, and from modern times, protective plastic covering over ages old iron in windows. There are red bricks all about, looking like a decades long patch project. Got a hole there, Bob? Stick a brick in it!

Walking here is a reflection on human ingenuity. The battlements you see in the movies make so much sense in reality. Everywhere, on every level, are high places from which to hide and shoot, or throw, or pour stuff that kills unwanted guests. It’s clear that the inhabitants climbed higher ( and for that matter built higher) to escape danger. The fortress even features a kill alley as the last, literal avenue of defense. The only way marauders were getting to those within and above was down a corridor lined with fortified, higher ground positions. Brilliant.

I imagined following someone through the many cobbled avenues from level to level. There is a sense of how the community worked, if you let your mind see it. Water and sewer and lovely courtyards and market stalls - its all clear. They even carved rivulets in roof tiles to aid water runoff. As I meandered, I could sense where people lived and how they went about their days.. I imagined some child delivering goods from the lower courtyards, getting away from the ‘burbs’ and hoping for a glimpse of a fine lady. And the soldiers must have been fleet footed to zip up the slim stairs to the ramparts and along the walls.

It was an unforgettable morning. I’ll never watch a medieval movie again without an eye toward whether they got the sets right. I have a newfound respect for the centuries of ingenuity that went into our civilizations.Read more