Going to Palmela next weekend? The castle turns medieval for three days
Merchants, tournaments and processions take over the castle and the old town from 25 to 27 September, with the re-enactment set in the year 1348. A day ticket is 5 euros, three days is 10, and under-13s go free.
The year is 1348 and King Afonso IV has decided to call on the town and castle of Palmela, bringing the queen and Prince Pedro with him. That is the scenario this year’s re-enactment is built around, and everything else hangs off it — the council has confirmed the dates as 25 to 27 September, Friday to Sunday, with the Friday opening at five in the afternoon.
The site takes in the castle and the historic centre, with the way in at Largo do Município. Inside there is a free fair of merchants and craftspeople, themed encampments, tournaments, processions, and roaming performers who turn up wherever they feel like it. The Order of Santiago, which held this castle for centuries, is the thread running through most of it.
What it costs
Five euros for a day, ten for the three-day pass. The cheaper advance rate of four and eight euros closed on 31 August. Children up to 12 get in free, though they still need a wristband — which is what everyone does on arrival anyway, because tickets are swapped for wristbands at the gate rather than at a box office somewhere else.
One practical warning the organisers keep repeating: the site and the walkways between the walls are not recommended for anyone with reduced mobility. Sort your parking out before you set off, too. Palmela is a hillside town and the castle sits at the top of it.
Is it worth the trip?
The previous edition pulled more than 33,000 visitors into the town over a single weekend, which for a place of Palmela’s size says something about the scale. The fair is run by the municipality with the cultural association Alius Vetus, and it has grown since the first edition in 2014 to the point where the site had to be widened to fit everyone in.
If historical re-enactment is your thing, Portugal spreads them across the whole calendar — the Minho has a Ponte de Lima romaria that turned 200 this year, and last weekend’s Heritage Days opened buildings that are usually shut. Palmela’s advantage is that it sits half an hour from Lisbon and ends with a view over the Arrábida and the Sado that no set designer could build.
Photo: F nando / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
