Garrison Border Town of Elvas and its Fortifications

The site, extensively fortified from the seventeenth to nineteenth 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 tenth century AD, its fortification began when Portugal regained its independence in 1640. The fortifications designed by the 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.

Criterion (ⅳ): Elvas is an outstanding example of a garrison town and its dry-ditched bulwarked defense system, which developed in response to disruptions in the balance of power within seventeenth-century Europe. Elvas can thus be seen as representing the universal aspiration for autonomy and land shared by European nation states in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Country: Portugal
Location: Elvas (revised)
Coordinates: N38 52 50.23, W7 9 47.96
Inscription year: 2012
Inscription Criterion: ⅳ