The most recent fortification around Elvas, Fort Graça, was comissioned in 1763 by Wilhelm Count Lippe, then supreme commander of the Portuguese army. Up to the 1980s the Portuguese army occupied this base as a disciplinary depot. The satirical cartoons date from these times.

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In 2012 UNESCO inscribed the "Garrison Border Town of Elvas and its Fortifications" on the World Cultural Heritage list. The fortified town with its' massive bastions and two large Forts of Santa Luzia and Graça constructed by Jesuit Padre Cosmander is ranked amongst the best examples of European defensive architecture.

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Size: 3583px × 2687px
Location: Elvas, Portalegre District, Alentejo, Portugal
Photo credit: © Achim Zeilmann / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: army, cartoon, casemattes, count, defence, defensive, drawing, elvas, fort, fortification, fortress, frontier, garrison, graf, graç, heritage, historic, history, humour, joke, lippe, military, monument, mural, portugal, spain, town, unesco, walls, works, world