rondes and crowned by parallepetical and pyramidal merlons in the northeast, over a rectangular tower covered in partially-ruined pyramidal merlons facing the interior. Within the walls the urban agglomeration consisted of single-family homes overlooking a church with bell-tower in the south, while in the southwest and southeast were smaller chapels. To the south, the castle was in viewing distance of the castles of Almeida and Castelo Rodrigo. In 1510, King D. Manuel I renewed the foral, and ordered the repair of the castle and fortifications. But, these works did not begin until 1512, under the direction of João Ortega, from Penamacor, and mason Pero Fernandes, with overseer Rui de Andrade, who was discharged by the King. The medieval Numeramento, carried out in 1527, identified a population of just under 396. In the 17th century, the Viscount of Vila Nova de Cerveira and Marquesses of Ponte de Lima, was appointed alcalde-mor, who installed two artillery-pieces and constructed a bastion tower with vaulted space occupied by a jail. During the Restoration Wars, it was an important frontier defense and served as a shelter for the governors of Beira, when the cisterns (the Poços de El-Re and Poços da Escada). It was mentioned in the 1758 Memórias Paroquiais. The town and castle began its progressive decline in 1762, when the town was encircled and overrun. J. Almeida referred to the existence of watchtower in the Cabeço da Medronheira, dating to the 18th century, but where no vestiges exist. By the second decade of the 19th century, the French invasion of the peninsula resulted in the destruction of the castle, and the revision of the administrative authority resulted in the extinction of the municipality of Castelo Bom (in 1834). The castle's defensive structures progressively fell into ruin. By the 1950s, the keep tower remained intact, but the descendant of its original owners wanted to construct a court for donkeys (F. Keil do Amaral). The castle was already in ruin and partially buried by 1987, when a study was elaborated by the Direcção Geral dos Edifícios e Monumentos Nacionais (DGMEN) in order to recuperate the urban centre and the castle architecture. Work on the site began, innocuously with the clearing of the village gate in 1940s, but proceeded to more elaborate consolidation of the cistern and the area around the resource by 1966. In order to attract more tourists to the site, an overlook was