Alcáçova do Castelo de Mértola

On the northern slope of the Castle Hill, the possible Roman city forum creates an artificial platform, supporting the imposing monumental complex of the city of Myrtilis. This entire platform, leaning against the wall, rested on a solid underground gallery approximately 30 meters long and 6 meters high. In Late Antiquity, in the 5th and 6th centuries, lavish religious buildings were erected here; among them, a possible Episcopal Palace and a baptistery, of which significant fragments of a beautiful set of polychrome mosaics remain. During the Islamic period, during the 12th and 13th centuries, this entire area was occupied by a residential neighborhood of approximately thirty houses. After the Christian conquest of 1238, the neighborhood was abandoned and the grounds used as a cemetery.