Guarda, Portugal

This one's a private swap with Marta, who kindly wanted to help me with my scarce collection on Portugal cards :)


The card shows the Old Square with the cathedral in Guarda, which is 40km from Spain. Its name is an indication of its ‘guarding’ role. It served its purpose well under the Duke of Wellington against the French in the Peninsular War of the 1800s. The highest town in Portugal, at over 1000 metres above sea level, its defending walls were put in place by the 12th century King Sancho I (the statue on the picture) and much still remains to be seen today, including three original portals. Its location has also earned it the reputation of being one of the coldest towns in the country, its most famous son, the poet Augusto Gil, famously describing the arrival of snow in his poem 'Luar de Janeiro'.