The fortress, built in the seventeenth century, the bulwark Santa Cruz is one of the most unspoilt parts. This bulwark defended the gates of Viana which is why today sports a guardhouse. It was here that watched over the entrances of the fortress that came to the village of Cerveira by road from Viana.
In practice it is a half bulwark. A bulwark is nothing more than an advanced defense walls, pentagonal, with a similar shape of an arrow, which allows flanked shot. In this case, we face a half bulwark for not presenting the full pentagonal shape.
In 1848, past decades on the last armed conflict in Cerveira - the French invasion - have become more marked the struggle for land and even by the structures of the defensive system of the Village. The municipality wanted the Ministry of War to relinquish the walls so that he could expand the village. The Ministry finally gave in and was started the destruction of the fortress, a process that the Bulwark of Santa Cruz was able to resist. Even the private slowly begin to take ownership of the land and earthworks walls, extending their properties, often giving rise to lawsuits involving the Local Authority, the Ministry of War and the Civil the Governor.
Location: Vila Nova de Cerveira
