Penamacor is a pretty town in the Castelo Branco district. Along with its heritage and the many products that animate your visit, it is noteworthy that in the Sierra de Malcata Natural Reserve, created in 1981 to try to rescue the Iberian lynx that historically had populated the area, so it has been launched an interesting reintroduction project.

Although there are many prehistoric and Roman remains in the municipality, in the city of Penamacor there are no written or archaeological testimonies of occupation prior to the 13th century. The domains of the area had been donated to the Templars by Sancho I in 1189 in the person of his Master Gualdim Pais.

Its particular situation on a rocky head from which the castle of Monsanto can be seen would encourage the Temple to build a fortification on the site in the transition from the 12th to the 13th century. Sancho I had granted the Foral in 1199 and then, in 1262 before the progress of the population, Afonso III granted the authorization of the Fair.

Very little remains of that old medieval castle. The remains that have reached us already have a later chronology. It is known that during the reign of D. Dinis, in the transition from the thirteenth to the fourteenth century, works were carried out, including the Torre del Homenaje and a new wall. In the reigns of D. Fernando and D. João I the barbican was raised.

The main element of these remains is the majestic Torre del Homenaje that dominates the entire landscape of Penamacor and that some mistakenly called Torre Vigía. It is a structure with a regular quadrangular plan, with an elevated entrance above the ground that required the use of a removable ladder. It shows a very solid and closed appearance, with few windows.