Being in Campo Maior is like breathing centuries of fights and battles, now finally dormant in the ancient memory of its walls, defensive structures, barracks and castle. Legend has it that after the prehistoric and Roman occupations, it was the Moors who built the first city, Christianised in the early thirteenth century by people from neighbouring Badajoz in the kingdom of Castile. A borderland between the kingdoms of Portugal and Castile, it was forced to build a history of defences and contraband encompassing the now-peaceful fields that stretch for as far as the eye can see.