[1][2] At that time, the castle was settled and donated to D. Gualdim Pais, Master of the Order of the Temple (Knights Templar), resulting in the establishment of a fortification on a pre-existing castro.

[1] It was uniformly crowned by balcony with machicolations, a military solution which was relatively rare in Portugal, influenced by interventions in this century, and designed by local master mason João de Ortega, who added two circular corbels.

[1] Addorsed to the town wall is a U-shaped barbican that partially includes in the south, west and north, followed by protected adarves with merlons and cruciform bombardments with cylindrical corbels with slits on the northwestern and northeastern angles.

[1][3] By the middle of the 17th century, renovation of the defensive structures were undertaken during the context of the Portuguese Restoration Wars, being Military Governor of Beiras, Marquess of Castelo Melhor, who initiated work on the construction of six bastions.

[3] Signed by the vicar Ascênsio de Carvalho, the Memórias indicated that the walls were built of simple, single stone, with six bastions and with two gates: the Carros in the east and the Santo António in the west.

[3] A later revision, signed by prior of the parish of Santa Maria, Manuel da Gama Reixa, the Penamacor castle was referred as having walls in ruins in two areas: right of the gate, provoked by a storm, and along the tower, following a violent fire, caused by an explosion.

[3] In addition, it referred to a triangular square and a niche in the archway of the gate, with a painting of Senhora do Pé da Cruz.

[3] From here, the walls extended to the Church São João, where the Gate of Carros was located, followed by the post of the fiscal guard, passing through the Cavaleira with vestiges of the redoubt.

[3] In 1834, the military garrison was removed from the castle, thus initiating a progressive destruction of the walls, whose materials were being reused for various construction projects in the municipality.

[1] Similarly, on 17 July 1886, the stone from the Gate of Monturo dos Negros (situated alongside the Jardim da República), was resold and reused for the construction of the avenue and sidewalks of the town.

On 8 August 1973, a dispatch from the Secretary-of-State for Instruction and Culture (Portuguese: Secretário de Estado da Instrução e Cultura) indicated their interest in supporting the reclassification of the site.

[3] On 31 October 2012, the decision was published to classify the site as a national monument (Announcement 13641/2012, Diário da República, Série 2, 211).

[3] The urban circus occupies an irregular, ovular track of which only a few segments of the identifiable perimeter still remain: a line without merlons between the House of the Câmara and the keep tower, and the section in the southern wall.

Its regular, rectangular plan includes embrasure, with two blind registers, and a partially-broken arch on the ground floor to the west, surmounted by a base relief image of a knight.

The north face with high bilevel embrasure includes royal coat-of-arms, flanked by armilar spheres and framed by rectangular on the upper floor.

[3] The southern facade with similar embrasure, is partial addorsed over rocky outcroppings integrated into the construction, with a decorative adarve with machicolations composed of tripartite corbels.