castelo de marvao

This town just grabs your attention like no other. This is so much more than a castle. It is a walled town, gardens and worth several hours of your time. I will be going back again. You can see for 100 kms. in any direction from the top of the castle. Really one of Europe's hidden gems. The castle is free to visit from November to March.

Best castle we've ever visited in Europe. Gift shops high quality, good prices. Be ready to do some walking on uneven stone walkways.

This small village inside the old castle walls is so charming and beautiful and has breathtaking views all along the castle fortress.It is an amazing place to visit!

This castle was beautiful with breathtaking views. We parked in car park 3, about halfway up to the castle, and walked all the way up to the castle via the castle walls and were able to soak up the amazing views! From November to March the entrance to the castle is free.We were able to walk all around and inside the castle, taking pictures to our heart's content. The cistern is s great thing to see as well, since it was full and it has a brief history of it on the wall. All in all the visit to the castle is very worth while!

We were directed here by our hotelier in Evora (one of several great suggestions he made). Marvao is a charming whitewashed village with an intact wall around it, and outstanding views. There is also a coliseum, wish we had more time to get the story on that. There are several restaurants to choose from (probably more in the summer) and shops with interesting locally made gifts. It was very windy, probably a common condition up that high, so bring a sweater.

I really enjoyed my time in Marvão!Full of history.The tourism office is at the entrance of the fortress. Inside this fortress there is a friendly village with narrow streets and white houses.Inside looks a labyrinth. ;)Nice place to step in!

This Castle and the walled town is breathtaking. It sits on a mountaintop 3,500 ft above the surrounding countryside. This was constructed hundreds of years ago and still remains in excellent condition.

Marvão was also called also the eagle's nest, because these birds used to establish residence in the castle top. We actually saw 5-6 griffons (grifos) rising effortlessly near the castle (as well as lots of other birds). Due to its elevated location and amazing views around we ended up spending hours just walking about the place.The castle is one of the 2 best maintained castles in Portugal - the other being Obidos, in case you want to know. And free until March.As to visiting time, I heard February is tricky, due to snow and occasional ice. We just visited (November) and the weather was lousy (from a Portuguese perspective) but we still saw some glimpses of the sun; the silver lining was that the light changes in the landscape provide great opportunities for pics.We had lunch in Portagem (nearby village) and dinned in Marvão, at Varanda do Alentejo - excellent spot, great food; the house wine was amazing!Know that Marvão was an emirate once.The are 120 Marvanenses actually living in Marvão and many more in the surroundings.You can drive up there and park inside the castle, should you decide to stay.More than describing it, I will emphatically recommend a visit.

I can definitely understand why this town of Marvao, sitting on top of a hill surrounded by mountains and ginormous boulders, made it to "1000 places to visit before you die"! I have never been at a loss for words as I walked the narrow stairs close to the walls of the fort and leading from one tower to another. The most amazing views ever of the world surrounding this town. My husband and I visited in October and by then, the number of visitors was minimal which is how I like it. I was able to truly appreciate this place in silence and my mind was flabbergasted as to how this castle and fort was built. Rock upon rock, the castle was slowly built. And over thousands of years, it still remains whole, a testament to the genius, perseverance of man.If you're not afraid of heights, do what we did. Walk the narrow steps. As I did that, I wondered how on earth could the soldiers ever run from tower to tower without tripping over!Not too many commercial establishments within the fort walls, the authenticity/culture and ambiance of the medieval town has been preserved. There is a small fee to go up the castle.I'd say that we completed the sightseeing in a couple of hours. But we stayed overnight ... we had to. This is such a special place.

Wonderful views from the Castelo. Step back in history. Beautiful gardens on approach. You can walk around the entire length of the walls for views over Portugal and Spain. Definitely worth the effort. Wasn't even charged as it was raining and cloudly, but the clouds lifted to reveal the beautiful views.

liked to walk around the wall, free of paymant and wonderful view.can park the car in Vaios parks outside the walls without any disorderNo dislikes.

the views most certainly, especially since a huge double rainbow came out after a heavy downpour just as we reached the open ramparts of the castle.We drove to Marvao, a charming little town, from our Quinta in Sao Mamede. The drive up and down green, misty hills, through leafy lanes past charming rustic Churches was soothing for us city souls.The people are utterly charming, and eager to help and guide, even though almost none had any English and we had no Portuguese. The castle high up on the hill dominates the surrounding countryside . We set out on a rainy afternoon after lunch, since we wanted to avoid the siesta period when life comes to a halt in Portugal.Walking up the hill to the castle which can get very windy, yields good photo ops and views of peaks on the opposite hills.Interesting feature is the enormous silo for water storage which is full till today. Access is down narrow steps to an echoing gallery from where the silo is visible.There are stairs and walkways to reach the upper ramparts for better views. A little cafe for getting out of the rain ( although closed on our trip) is charming.A massive downpour forced us to take shelter under one of the overhangs and cut short our trip.Great for a lazy afternoon.

Having just visited Castelo de Vide and the castle this this lacked the same atmosphere. Don't get me wrong it is stunningly located, with fabulous all round views and very well maintained but it felt very "commercial " The beautiful garden and church located just before you get to the castle was much more appealingly.If you are in the area you should definitely visit BUT you must go to Castelo de Vide as well.We parked at the first parking area we found and in retrospect but have benefited from driving a little further but if we had we wouldn't have had the fun of walking around the narrow streets trying to find the Pousada for lunch.Marvao is a beautiful place, as are all these castellated border towns perched on top of hills, with views that go on forever. It is a very picturesque way of getting fit.

The castle is situated beautifully on top of a mountain. As we stayed in Marvao over night we were lucky to be at the castle right in the morning with only a few other people. The castle is definitely worth a visit as it is impressive itself and if course the view is spectacular! Definitely recommend to go there!

It really is hard to imagine a more dramatic location than Marvao, on top of its almost pyramid-shaped mountain, with rocky slopes swooping down to the plains on one side and the dramatic valleys of the São Mamede national park on the other. And sitting at the upper end of this picture-postcard village is a quite amazing castle:# superbly preserved: you can walk along the entire length of the battlements (good head for heights needed!)# a labyrinth of courtyards, passageways and gates - you can really imagine it as a "working" castle# unbelievable views