Category: Military Architecture > Tower
District: Beja > Moura > Moura > Fábrica do Visconde
The Atalaia da Cabeça Magra is located on Monte da Atalaia, in the parish of Moura (Santo Agostinho e São João Batista) and Santo Amador, in the municipality of Moura, district of Beja, Portugal.
The site where the watchtower is located has vestiges of an Iron Age castro, indicating an ancestral occupation.
During the Christian Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula, the region was conquered from the Moors by D. Afonso Henriques in 1166.
At the end of the 13th century, during the reign of D. Dinis, four watchtowers were erected to monitor the border with Castile: Cabeça Gorda, Cabeça Magra, Alvarinho and Porto Mourão.
The Atalaia Magra is an isolated watchtower, built on top of a hill. It communicated visually with the Castle of Moura and other watchtowers in the region.
Currently, the Atalaia da Cabeça Magra is partially in ruins, being the only survivor of the original set.
The tower is made of rubble masonry, has a circular plan with about four meters in diameter and twelve meters in height.
The tower has a pointed arch door, Gothic style, about one meter above the ground. There were three small quadrangular windows in the walls. The interior had two floors, the lower one covered by a stone vault and the upper one by wooden beams (now disappeared). Access to the floors is via a stone spiral staircase.
The Atalaia da Cabeça Magra is considered a Property of Public Interest since 1986.
Unlike the Atalaia Magra, the watchtowers of Porto Mourão, Cabeça Gorda and Alvarinho had a quadrangular plan.
Sources: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atalaia_da_Cabeça_Magra
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.pt
Coordinates DD: 38.1380491,-7.4177157
Coordinates DMS: 38°08'17.0"N 07°25'3.8"W
Weather Moura
On-duty Pharmacy Moura
