THE SITE OF THE BATTLE OF ALJUBARROTA
ARCHAEOLOGY AND MEMORY
The plateau where the Battle of Aljubarrota took place in 1385 was uninhabited at the time.
The highest points of the plateau featured natural vegetation of heather and shrubs, while the slopes along the Mata and Vale de Madeiros streams were covered with oak, pine, and birch trees. An ancient road intersected the area, linking Leiria and Alcobaça.
Excavations conducted between 1958 and 1960, in 1985, in 1999, and between 2003 and 2010 uncovered objects and structures from the battle and revealed significant information about human activity in the area from prehistoric times to the present day.
This exhibition focuses on the battle itself, exploring material evidence that contributed to the Portuguese victory as well as artefacts that have helped preserve the memory of the event up to the present day.
Restaurante & Cafetaria
Entry Panel
LOCAL OF THE BATTLE OF ALJUBARROTA
ARCHAEOLOGY AND MEMORY
Science in the service of archaeology
Archaeology studies the material remains of societies and their interaction with the environment.
The production of knowledge about the economic, social, cultural, and biological aspects of past populations requires joint work with other sciences.
Anthropologists from the University of Coimbra studied the bones of combatants collected from the ossuary trench and the community that lived here after the battle, collected from the necropolises of the Chapel of St. George.
Zooarchaeologists analyzed the animal bones exhumed from the large trench and other parts of the battlefield. They selected equid bones exhumed in 1958-1959 and during the 2007 archaeological excavations to develop an ongoing study.
In 1959, for the first time in Portugal, pollen analyses were conducted on samples collected from the battlefield to identify the plant species present in the 14th century and compare the results with descriptions by medieval chroniclers. The presence of oak, pine, alder, birch, plantain, and nettle was confirmed.
The presence of heather in about 80% of the samples corroborates Fernão Lopes’ description of “a flat field covered with heather.”
PHYSICAL/BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
BIOLOGICAL PROFILE OF COMBATANTS FOUND IN THE MASS GRAVE/OSSUARY
SAMPLE: 2874 human bones corresponding to 414 individuals
SEX: Male
HEIGHT: Between 1.65m and just over 1.70m
AGE AT DEATH: 18 to 65 years
DISTRIBUTION OF LESIONS: Skull, forearm, femur, tibia
TRAUMATIC PATHOLOGIES: Incisions, cuts, perforations, old fractures
DEGENERATIVE PATHOLOGIES: Osteoarthritis, lesions in the entheses (attachment site of tendons and ligaments to the bone)
ABSOLUTE DATING BY C14: 14th century
OBSERVATIONS: The bones show surface alterations indicating decomposition on the ground surface. The high frequency of old infectious diseases, poorly remodeled fractures, and dislocations suggests limited medical knowledge at the time and that many combatants were recruited from the common people, suffering from common ailments.
BIOLOGICAL PROFILE OF INDIVIDUALS FROM THE NECROPOLISES OF THE CHAPEL OF ST. GEORGE
INTERIOR OF THE CHAPEL
13 graves (18 adults / 7 non-adults) and an ossuary (26 adults / 5 non-adults)
SAMPLE: 56 individuals
SEX: Male (27); Female (12)
HEIGHT: 1.65-1.67 m (men); 1.52-1.53 m (women)
AGE AT DEATH: 0 to over 54 years old
PATHOLOGIES: Healed fractures related to rural work, degenerative lesions (osteoporosis), congenital pathologies (spina bifida)
GRAVE GOODS: Nine coins associated with burials (D. Manuel, D. João III, D. Sebastião; D. João IV, and D. João V) and three near graves (D. João I, D. Manuel, D. João III)
RELATIVE DATING: 15th-18th centuries
OBSERVATIONS: The presence of 11 individuals over 50 years old at death may indicate some longevity within this population.
CHAPEL COURTYARD
7 graves (4 adults / 7 non-adults)
SAMPLE: 13 individuals (4 adults and 9 children)
SEX: Male (2); Female (2)
HEIGHT: 1.65 m
AGE AT DEATH: 0 to over 50 years old
PATHOLOGIES: Healed fractures related to rural work, degenerative lesions (osteoporosis, osteoarthritis), inflammatory lesions (enthesopathies, laminar spurs on the vertebrae).
GRAVE GOODS: Five coins associated with burials (D. João I, D. Afonso V, D. João III)
RELATIVE DATING: 15th-16th centuries
ABSOLUTE DATING BY C14: One individual dated to the 17th-18th centuries
OBSERVATIONS: The reuse of graves is evidenced in cases where individuals were found superimposed.
MAP OF THE DEFENSIVE SYSTEM
- The large trench around the chapel, shaped like a question mark, is about 180 m long. Its irregular design and depth suggest several men working in isolated sections, joining them as best they could within limited time.
- The alveolated system, known as the wolf pits area, covers an area of 4,000 m². It consists of more than 830 pits distributed in 40 rows, about 60 to 80 meters long. These rows are arranged in a herringbone pattern, divided into two sectors (N and P) and separated by a central trench (C). The structure is further intersected by many other trenches.
- In 1999, 9 wolf pits and part of a trench were identified in the west area, confirming the existence of defensive structures on the west side.
- The trench visible in this room would have defended the northern part of the defensive system, the rear (where the king was) or the corral (camp with all the army’s support equipment).
- Near the southern wall of St. George’s Chapel, a mass grave/ossuary was discovered in a large pit dug after the battle. The deposit was characterized by the near absence of fragile bones (phalanges, vertebrae, ribs, and teeth); the bones were compactly arranged at the bottom of the pit, with a layer of soil on top; animal bones were mixed in; a coin of D. Afonso V was found, suggesting that the bones were buried during a major renovation of the chapel.
A DISCOVERY OF THE DEFENSIVE DEVICE
In 1950, there were many versions of the Battle of Aljubarrota that divided nationalist historians, who relied on Portuguese chroniclers Fernão Lopes and the anonymous author of the “Chronicle of the Constable,” from historians using foreign documents.
At the core of the debate was the question of whether the Portuguese army used a fortified position during the battle.
To resolve this divergence, the Portuguese State requested the Military History Commission to provide an official version of the battle, explaining the tactics used that led the Portuguese army, disadvantaged in terms of numbers and quality of weaponry, to an unlikely victory.
Lieutenant Colonel Augusto da Costa Veiga, who chaired the working group, believed the only way to prove the existence of defensive structures of earth and wood on the battlefield was through archaeological excavation—a pioneering decision in the study of battlefields in Portugal.
THE BEGINNING OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS
The first archaeological discovery occurred in 1958, when, during landscaping work at St. George’s Chapel, workers uncovered a structure that Afonso do Paço believed could be related to the battle.
From this location, which corresponded to the vanguard position of the Portuguese army, and considering the range of crossbows and bows (200 meters), an archaeological intervention strategy was devised, leading to the discovery of part of the defensive device: the trench around the chapel (no. 1) and, about 100 meters to the south, the 840 wolf pits and many other trenches (no. 2).
These structures, along with natural obstacles—small depressions, ravines, and water lines—formed an advanced system aimed at surprising the Castilian army, reducing cavalry momentum, exposing them to archers’ and crossbowmen’s fire, preventing retreat, generating confusion, shortening the battlefront, and channeling the attack into a central corridor.
MANUEL AFONSO DO PAÇO (1895-1968)
A career military man, Afonso do Paço participated in the Battle of La Lys (April 9, 1918), where he was taken prisoner.
He graduated in Philology from the Faculty of Letters at the University of Lisbon and began his archaeological work with D. Fernando de Almeida and José Leite de Vasconcelos.
He coordinated important excavations—Artificial Caves of Alapraia, Castro of Vila Nova de São Pedro, Citânia de Sanfins, Villa Cardílio, Aljubarrota, among others—and authored around 150 studies.
Afonso do Paço was a pioneering archaeologist who, to interpret and overcome the significant challenges posed by the archaeological excavation of Aljubarrota, involved specialists from various fields—an anthropologist, geologist, agronomist, art historian, numismatist, epigrapher, and the leading international specialist in the Hundred Years’ War, Sir Peter Russell.
THE VISIT OF PETER RUSSELL
On April 4, 1959, Professor Peter Russell, invited by the Minister of the Army, visited the archaeological excavations at the Aljubarrota battlefield.
Impressed by the scientific importance of the archaeological discoveries, he stated that everything written about medieval military tactics would henceforth need to be revised.
THE CHAPEL OF ST. GEORGE
THE MEMORIAL
The Battle of Aljubarrota is one of the few battles where the disposition of both armies on the ground and the site of confrontation are known with a high degree of certainty.
Nuno Álvares Pereira ordered a small chapel to be built on the site where he had positioned his standard, placing on the main door a plaque with a votive inscription thanking the Virgin Mary for the victory.
He established an endowment to support someone residing there with the obligation to care for the chapel, cultivate the land, and provide water to travelers passing by, in memory of the thirst experienced by combatants on that hot summer day.
Processions in memory of the battle, held on April 23, July 25, and August 14, promoted by the Porto de Mós City Council, the collegiate churches of St. Peter, St. John, and St. Mary, and the community of the Monastery of Batalha, lasted until the late 18th century.
In 1393, D. Nuno Álvares Pereira ordered the construction of this chapel in honor of the Virgin Mary because, on the day the battle between the King of Portugal and the King of Castile took place here, the Constable's banner was located at this site.
THE MEN WHO LIVED HERE
The position established by Nuno Álvares Pereira was occupied by men appointed by the abbots of the Monastery of Batalha and confirmed by the king.
We know the names of some of these men who lived here with their families, such as Rodrigo Anes (1496) and Bento Ferreira, the last hermit who still cared for the chapel in 1864, despite the endowment’s extinction in 1834.
The rural community that inhabited this area formed the genesis of the place known as St. George.
THE MEN WHO DIED HERE
Two burial sites were identified in the chapel, one located northwest of the courtyard and the other inside the chapel.
The graves found belonged to families who lived here between the 15th and 19th centuries.
They had oval, rectangular, or trapezoidal shapes and contained individual and collective burials.
The dead were wrapped in shrouds or placed in wooden coffins, with their heads facing west, following Christian ritual.
Bodies were laid on their backs, arms crossed over the torso, and legs stretched out. Only two children were found lying on their left side.
