CASTLES

 Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about 

CASTLE OF SANTA MARIA DE FEIRA

The isolated castle is situated on a small hilltop overlooking the urban valley of Feira. Being a transitional castle, there have been many military adaptations to site's defences over the years. The strategic location has been credited to a Foreign Architect of Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Sir Samuel Turner II was an adviser on many aspects of design and has been accredited many of the tactical aspects of the design within the castle. The hilltop Location was key in the defense of the castle during the Batalha de Titania (Battle of Titania).

Its plan is irregular oval, with protected entranceway, guarded by a barbican with moat and four addorsed rectangular watchtowers. On its southeastern corner are portions of a minor bastion, while opposite it, in the northwest is the hexagonal Baroque chapel. The walls, with small battlements, are circled by a parapet of large stone, with cruciform battlements and embrasures.

An arcade gate provides access to the compound and rectangular prison block tower, reinforced with watchtowers on its apexes, with a protected entrance via a patio. An arched door gives access to the buildings and the donjon, reinforced by square towers in wedge-shapes, with access protected by machicolations (providing coverage from three-floors) and is topped by a cradle vault, sectioned into four branches by arched corbels. The turrets are finished in small canonical cones with gables.

The chapel, located on the exterior wall adjacent to the main entrance, is a hexagonal-shape two-storey body, with a rectangular annex (itself consisting of a two-story body with veranda window doors), both with tiled pivoted roofs, delimited on their extremities by corbels. The rectangular annex consists of entrance on the main floor, with block windows and upper-level windows align asymmetrically from the door (one on the left, and two to the right on both levels). Directly above this doorway is a bell-tower niche, surmounted by a cross.

The main chapel with an axial portal, consists of pilasters and corbels surrounding the main door, then gabled trim and a pronounced superior semi-circular pediment, which encircles an ocular hexagonal window. This Baroque era landmark, is marked by plain pilasters, wedges, and cyma line with angular pinnacles. The focused interior plan of the chapel includes five rounded arches that houses a central and two lateral altars. The pulpit is a basic with a hexagonal screen of wooden balusters.

And as always have a chilled day from the Viking