The Portuguese Castle is a red stone castle in Hormoz Island, Iran. It is one of the last surviving monuments of Portuguese rule in the Persian Gulf.
The was castle built by the Portuguese on Hormoz Island is without doubt the most impressive colonial fortress in Iran. Constructed of reddish stone on a rocky promontory at the far north of the island, the castle was originally cut off from the rest of the island by a moat, traces of which still remain. Although most of the roof caved in long ago, much of the lower part of the very substantial outer walls is intact, with the remains lying on different levels of the site.
History The castle was built by Portuguese commander Alfonso de Albuquerque when his forces seized the island in the early sixteenth century. The Persian Safavid king, Shah Abbas I (1587-1629), wanted to see an end to Portuguese rule in the south and eventually managed to convince the British East India Company to allow its ships to cooperate with his land forces in order to seize the island from the Portuguese in 1622.
Ah now I remember why the name Hormoz was so familiar! I used to play a colonization game on my computer and there was an option to colonize Hormoz. It's nice to see the Portuguese didn't kill off the birds, would have been a shame.
