Cortegana

Cortegana's castle stands above a town whose history includes both frontier defence and craft production. The surviving fortress is identified by archaeological and architectural evidence as a Christian construction of the later Middle Ages; its precise foundation date remains uncertain, and written reference is documented in 1344. As settlement developed below it, streets connected the castle with churches, chapels and sources of water. In the nineteenth century, cork-stopper manufacture brought new wealth, workshops and substantial houses to the town. Cortegana's built environment consequently records several kinds of activity: guarding a border, organising daily life and producing goods for markets beyond the surrounding hills.