Almourol Castle
In the early twelfth century, the papacy recognized the reconquista as equivalent to a crusade, and the rulers of Portugal, Castile, and Aragon persuaded the Templars and other military orders to help them hold on to regions that had formerly been Muslim. When the Portuguese ruler conquered the western end of the Tagus River valley in the mid-twelfth century, he entrusted some of the Muslim strongholds there to the Templars. They rebuilt one of them as Almourol castle, using it to defend Portugal’s new frontier. (Index / Bridgeman Images.)