Macedo de Cavaleiros

Macedo de Cavaleiros lies in the interior of northeastern Portugal, among lands once occupied by fortified hill settlements. A royal inquiry in 1258 recorded the territory as belonging to knights Nuno Martins and Mendes Gonçalves; Macedo was then a small settlement beside more prominent neighbors. Its name is associated with the knight Martim Gonçalves de Macedo, remembered for defending the Master of Aviz at the battle of Aljubarrota in 1385. References to Macedo dos Cavaleiros appear in documents after the fourteenth century.