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Garrison Border Town of Elvas and its Fortifications
Site number:
1367
Type of site: Cultural
Date: 17-19 centuries
Date of Inscription: 2012
Location: Europe, Portugal, Alentejo
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Description: The site, extensively fortified from the 17th to 19th centuries, represents the largest bulwarked dry-ditch system in the world. Within its walls, the town contains barracks and other military buildings as well as churches and monasteries. While Elvas contains remains dating back to the 10th century ad, its fortification began when Portugal regained independence in 1640. The fortifications designed by Dutch Jesuit padre Cosmander represent the best surviving example of the Dutch school of fortifications anywhere. The site also contains the Amoreira aqueduct, built to enable the stronghold to withstand lengthy sieges. --WHMNet's description is from WHC Site, where additional information is available.
  Elvas (Portuguese pronunciation: ['ɛɫvɐʃ]) is a Portuguese municipality, an episcopal city and frontier fortress of Portugal, located in the district of Portalegre in Alentejo. It is situated about 230 km east of Lisbon, and about 15 km west of the Spanish fortress of Badajoz, by the Madrid-Badajoz-Lisbon railway. The city itself has a population of 18,106. Elvas is among the finest world examples of intensive usage of the trace italienne in military architecture, and is a World Heritage Site since June 30th 2012. The inscribed site name is "Garrison Border Town of Elvas and its Fortifications". --Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Source: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1367
Reference: 1. UNESCO World Heritage Center (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1367). 2. Wikipedia.
 
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