Portalegre

Portalegre stands beside the Serra de São Mamede in the northern Alentejo. Afonso III granted the town a charter in 1259, and King Denis ordered walls built to protect it. During the succession crisis of 1383–1385, townspeople besieged the castle and drove out its governor, Pedro Álvares Pereira, who supported the regent Leonor. Portalegre became a bishop's seat in 1549 and a city in 1550. Its cloth industry was among the most important in Portugal, and its Jewish quarter contributed substantial revenue. Near the Spanish border, the city also faced invasion: it fell to the army of Philip V in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession.