The King’s houses built on the farm of the Count of Barcelos in the suburb of Santa Maria do Alcamim, at Achada, present District of São Cristóvão. Social and urban dynamics in the 14th to 16th centuries

Abstract

The outside wall’s Santa Maria do Alcamim suburb was structured around a road axis linking the doors of the Moorish city to Arroios farms. On the steep slope of the castle, several parallel streets were set up, with a dense urban structure, where the Mozarabic Christian community and its church settled. After the reconquest, this neighborhood expanded and formed the great western suburb of Santa Justa and Rufina, economic booster of the city in the following centuries. Next to the ground of Alcamim, there was a farm that belonged to the 2nd count of Barcelos, having been acquired by the prince D. Afonso (future king D. Afonso IV), which was urbanized. Accompanying the social structure of the tenants and the conditions of their empowerment, we conclude that, on several occasions, the social and economic layers changed abruptly, influencing the typologies, functions and value of real estate.