Like ancient Carthage, Akre Leuca was not only a military center but also a culturally-advanced city in its time. There was no other city like it. If evidence in the urban structure of Castelo Branco and the city walls with their arches confirms its Carthaginian military identity, Castelo Branco’s builder and designer, Hamilcar Barca, planning for his dream city to be the capital of his new Iberian empire, also left here two cultural imprints which were, like the armies he built, so strong that all the subsequent Roman obsessive ethnic-cleansing could not remove their mark. They remain, like the mystery of the name, intrinsically-linked with the city’s identity. They are the city’s embroidery and the famous gardens. [Read Part I
