ount of Tuy and Porto, who
by his will left Vimaranes, as it was then called, to his widow,
Mumadona. About 927 she there founded a monastery and built a castle for
its defence, and this castle, which had twice suffered from Moslem
invaders, was restored or rebuilt by Count Henry, and there in 1111 was
born his son Affonso Henriques, who was later to become the first king
of the new and independent kingdom of Portugal. Henry died soon after,
in 1114, at Astorga, perhaps poisoned by his sister-in-law, Urraca,
queen of Castile and Leon, and for several years his widow governed his
lands as guardian for their son.

Thirteen years after Count Henry's death, in 1127, the castle was the
scene of the famous submission of Egas Moniz to the Spanish king, and
this, together with the fact that Affonso Henriques was born there, has
given it a place in the romantic history of Portugal which is rather
higher than what would seem due to a not very important building. The
castle stands to the north of the town on a height which commands all
the surrounding country. Its walls, defended at intervals by square
towers, are built among and on the top of enormous granite boulders, and
enclose an irregular space in which stands the keep. The inhabited part
of the castle ran along the north-western wall where it stood highest
above the land below, but it has mostly perished, leaving only a few
windows which are too large to date from the beginning of the twelfth
century. The square keep stands within a few feet of the western wall,
rises high above it, and was reached by a drawbridge from the walk on
the top of the castle walls. Its wooden floors are gone, its windows are
mere slits, and like the rest of the castle it owes its distinctive
appearance to the battlements which crown the whole building, and whose
merlons are plain blocks of stone brought to a sharp point at the top.
This feature, which is found in all the oldest Portuguese castles such
as that of Almourol on an island in the Tagus near Abrantes, and even on
some churches such as the old cathedral at Coimbra and the later church
at Leca de Balio, is one of the most distinct legacies left by the
Moors: here the front of each merlon is perpendicular to the top, but
more usually it is finished in a small sharp pyramid.

[Sidenote: Church.]

The other foundation of Mumadona, the monastery of Nossa Senhora and Sao
Salvador in the town of Guimaraes, had since her day twice suffered
de