Juromenha in History
Known as the Sentinel of the Guadiana because of its commanding vantage point over the river, Juromenha is strategically located on the north bank of the River Guadiana from where it has borne witness to history for millennia.
Today, the Fortress of Juromenha is made up of a 17th century moated, perimeter battlement around an earlier castle. It has traces of nine rectangular towers, some of which were rebuilt in the 20th century, although there is evidence that the original castle had as many as 17 towers. Whilst much of the interior is now in ruins, the main church, prison, a smaller church, warehouse, barracks and a mill are still identifiable.
The fortress was badly damaged in 1659 when the magazine exploded, causing the keep of the medieval castle to disappear. Extensive damage was also caused by the Richter scale 9 1755 Earthquake off Lisbon. The fort was finally abandoned in 1920, up until which time the people of Juromenha lived within the castle walls.
The site may have been occupied since Roman times, evidenced by a plaque claiming Julius Caesar ordered the construction of a defensive wall at Juromenha where is the plaque and are there any photographs, Roman gravestones, a Visigothic altar foot, Islamic-period construction, early Portuguese and late-Medieval architecture.
The name of Juromenha may come from the Roman name Julli Moenia, or the Arab name Julumaniya when the fortress was an outpost for the defence of Badajoz.
The Iberians
From as early as 3500 BC, the Iberians were the principal people in the Peninsular that bears their name, and were descendants of North African and Mediterranean cultures and other people already there. They combined a reputation for agriculture with being fierce warriors, and preferring suicide to being captured.
Another notable feature was that the family’s inheritance went to the daughters who also chose wives for their brothers.
The Phoenicians arrived in approximately 1000 BC when they created more advanced communities with the Iberians, based in part on trade with the Carthaginians and Greeks.
Whilst the Iberians continued to dominate the south, the north and western areas of the Peninsular fell to the Celts after they invaded in about 800 BC.
The Romans and Visigoths
At the start of the Punic Wars (264 to 146 BC) between Carthage and Rome, the Carthaginians ruled the Iberians, with Celtic Iberians also making up part of Hannibal’s army. However, the strongest tribe in the central and western parts were the Lusitanians, the forbears of the modern-day Portuguese.
The Romans successfully invaded the Iberian Peninsula when they defeated the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War in 218 BC, conquering most of the Peninsula with relative ease, until they fought the Lusitanians led by Viriatus. They eventually succeeded, but only after several Roman Legions had been defeated, and then only by bribing a trusted compatriot of Viriatus to kill him. The full conquest of the Iberian Peninsula was completed by Augustus in 19 BC.
- Julius Caesar served his quaestorship in modern-day Andalusia and Portugal in 69-8 BC. A plaque discovered in the fortress in 1776 AD claimed a powerful wall was built for him in 44BC named Julii-Moeinia or Juris-Moenia. where is the plaque and are there any photographs?
Some time after 418 AD, the Visigoths took over Hispania, the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula, although they lost their authority to the north of the Pyrenees after losing to the Francs at the Battle of Vouille in 507.
Under Reccared I, the Visigoths adopted the religion of their Hispano-Roman subjects, Nicene Christianity.
645 AD
The Visigothic Code was completed in 654 AD, unifying the laws applied to Romans and Visigoths.
Al-Andalus
An Arab and Berber army defeats the Visigoths in the Battle of Guadalete, leading to the collapse of the Visigoth Kingdom, but which led to the Kingdom of Asturias in northern Spain.
Count Vimara Peres, a vassal of the King of Leon, after taking the north of the Peninsula from the Moors, goes on to recapture the north of modern day Portugal, named as such after the name for Porto at that time, Portus Cale.
- Makhulibin Umar is referred to as the Lord of Juromenha, being the main focus of the Muladis Revolts.
- Juromenha is referred to as the forward guard of Badajoz by the geographer Iban Hawqal.
Portugal was initially an autonomous county of the Kingdom of Leon ruled by the House of Vimara Peres, but this autonomy ends in 1070 AD after attempting independence.
The Birth of Portugal
Dom Afonso Henriques defeats the forces of his mother, Countess Teresa of Portugal acting as regent for the Kingdom of Leon, at the Battle of Sao Mamede. Prior to this, Countess Teresa had given the newly-formed Knights Templar the town of Fonte Arcada as recompense for not joining the Crusades, and who later helped to finance Portuguese exploration.
Alfonso Henriques was acclaimed King of Portugal on the eve of the Battle of Ourique, which he one against the Andalusian Muslims.
The Kingdom of Leon is defeated at the Battle of Valdevez.
After 15 years of rebellion, Portugal is officially recognised as a country by the Treaty of Zamora under its first king, Dom Afonso Henriques, Afonso I, on 5th October 1143.
- Abu Muhammad Sidray Ibn Wazir conquered Juromenha and Badejoz.
The Siege of Lisbon results in its recapture from the Moors.
- Juromenha is reconquered by Geraldo the Fearless for Afonso Henriques, who makes him major.
Fernando II of Leon forces the Portuguese to abort their siege of Badajoz, then held by the Moors.
The reconquest is reversed by the reinvigorated Almohad Caliphate, who reconquer lost towns.
- Juromenha is again retaken by the Caliph Almoadalcube Almansor, and is defended by volunteers who alternate war with religious observance.
The Almohad Caliphate ia crushed at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa by a Christian army led by the kings of Castile, Aragon and Navarre, including a Portuguese contingent. This marks the beginning of the end for al-Andalus.
- Sancho II reclaims Elvas, Juromenha and other Alentejo towns.
- After presumably being recaptured, Dom Paio Peres Correia retakes Juromenha.
Reconquest of the Algarve completed, although challenged as a Portuguese possession by the King of Castile until the Treaty of Alcanices in 1297. However, the Algarve continues to be viewed as having its own identity, with Portuguese monarchs styled as the Kings of Portugal and the Algarve.
King Dinis I forms a commercial treaty with King Edward I of England.
- Afonso (later Afonso IV) marries Beatrice of Castile, daughter of Sancho IV of Castile at Juromenha. Evidence needed.
- Dinis I reconstructs the castle and issues it with a Royal Charter.
- Afonso IV’s daughter, Maria of Portugal, becomes Queen of Castile when she marries Alfonso XI of Castile at Juromenha. Evidence needed. Were there other royal weddings or events, such as corronations at Juromenha?
The Kingdom of Portugal and the Crown of Castile defeat the Marinid Invasion at the Battle of Rio Salado.
The Crown of Castile, supported by the Kingdoms of England, Granada, Navarre and Portugal with the Republic of Genoa fight an indecisive War of the Two Peters against the Crown of Aragon, supported by Henry of Trastamara and the Kingdom of France.
In the Portuguese Interregnum, the Kingdom of Portugal supported by the Kingdom of England, defeats the Crown of Castile supported by the Kingdom of France and Crown of Aragon. This ends when Joao Mestre de Avis (Dom Joao I) defeats an invading Castilian force six times his army’s size at the Battle of Aljubarrota.
His sons succeeds him in turn – Duarte, Henry the Navigator and Alfonso – who start the Golden Age of worldwide exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The Golden Age
On 21st August, Ceuta and Tangier in North Africa are captured by the Portuguese.
Around this time, Prince Henry the Navigator starts the Portuguese Sailing School.
The Portuguese seize Ceuta from the Sultanate of Morocco.
Gil Eanes starts the exploration of Africa with several voyages down its east coast.
Bartolomeu Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope.
Vasco da Gama arrives in India on 20th May 1498.
Pedro Alvares Cabral lands in Brazil.
- A survey finds the castle to be in a state of disrepair.
Afonso de Albuquerque conquers Goa in India which, along with Damaou and Diu, remain Portuguese colonies until 1961.
A Second Royal Charter is awarded to Juromenha by Manuel I.
War and Turmoil
King Sebastiao disappears without an heir, resulting in Philip II of Spain becoming Philip I of Portugal in 1581. Portugal retains its autonomy during this reign, although Philip II of Portugal attempts integration, thereby alienating the Portuguese nobles.
The War of Portuguese Succession results in victory for the Spanish.
On 1st December the Duke of Braganca, supported by France and the Kingdom of England, start the Portuguese Restoration Wars against the Spanish, at the end of which he was crowned Joao IV of Portugal. The wars end with the Treaty of Lisbon in 1668 AD
- During this period Juromenha’s outer bastion fortress is built to house new artillery, and is made up of two polygonal wall belts following the Vauban model.
- Following the victory in the Battle of the Elvas Lines, the castle keep is destroyed when the magazine explodes. The French engineer, Nicolas Langres, who was remodelling the fort, is suspected of being bribed.
- The fort was being defended at the time by 100 student-volunteers from Elvas University, all of whom died along with their leader, the Jesuit Priest Francisco Soares.
- The Spanish retreat towards Juromenha after losing the Battle of Montes Claros near Vila Vicosa.
Lisbon is largely destroyed by a Richter Scale Nine Earthquake off its coast which, combined with the ensuing tsunami, kills more than one-third of the population.
The fortress, and particularly the modern fortifications, are badly damaged by the Lisbon Earthquake.
Starting in 1801 AD, Napoleon attempts to conquer Portugal with three major offensives called the War of the Oranges. This leads the Royal Court of Pedro IV to move to Brazil. His daughter, Maria II, is crowned Queen of Portugal when Pedro decided to remain in Brazil as Emperor Pedro I.
- Juromenha surrenders to Dom Manuel Godoy, de facto leader of Spain, during the Peninsula War. This culminates in the Treaty of Badajoz on 6th June when Olivenza passes from Portugal to Spain, a territory which is disputed to this day.
Bourbon Spain, the United Kingdom and Portugal defeat France, Bonapartist Spain and the Duchy of Warsaw in the Peninsular War.
- Juromenha is retaken by Portuguese forces.
Portugal loses to the Empire of Brazil in the Brazilian War of Independence.
King Miguel I, brother of Emperor Pedro I, overthrows Queen Maria II and implements an absolutist monarchy. This leads to a Civil War that lasts until 1834, and which ended a liberalising period commenced by King Pedro IV. This resumes when Pedro returns to defeat his brother and restore a liberal constitutional monarchy.
- In the early 20th century, Juromenha is decimated by an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague.
The Republics
Republicans kill King Carlos and his heir, Prince Luis Filipe the Duke of Braganca in LIsbon’s Terreiro do Paco Square as they returned from a holiday in Vila Vicosa. King Carolos’s second son becomes King Manuel II.
King Manuel II orders elections which are won by the Republicans, leading the king to flee to England, ending the reign of the House of Braganca.
The First Republic is born but immediately goes into fifteen years of political chaos.
- The local population of Juromenha moves out of the fortress for the adjacent Sao Lazaro and Santo Antonio districts.
Portugal fights on the side of the Allies in World War I.
On 28th May 1926, General Manuel Gomes da Costa leads a coup d’etat, resulting in the Second Republic.
Antonio de Oliveira Salazar is declared Prime Minister by President Antonio Carmona, and who declares a New State the following year which sees him remaining in power until his death in 1970.
Portugal fights with the Spanish Nationalists to help win the Spanish Civil War.
The Captains Movement is created in secrecy for the purpose of overthrowing Salazar’s successor, Marcelo Caetano. Led by Salgueira da Maia and Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, and backed by General Costa Gomes, they succeed on 25th April 1974 in a bloodless coup d’etat called the Carnation Revolution, leading to the Third Republic.
By 1976, Portugal has granted independence to all its African colonies, lost East Timor in an Indonesian invasion, and returns Macau to the Chinese in 1999.
Portugal joins the European Economic Community.