Orjais Temple
Coordinates: 40 ° 20 '25.3 " N , 7 ° 25' 4.8" W.
The ruins of the Roman temple of Orjais are located near the village of the same name, 50 m above the Nossa Senhora das Cabeças chapel, which can be seen on a hill between Covilhã and Belmonte in Portugal in the Castelo Branco district in the Cova da Beira sub-region from the N18 national road to the west .
On the hill there is an Iron Age castro , of which some stone walls are visible on the slope edges. The continuation of the settlement in Roman times is documented by the foundations of a temple which was consecrated according to the inscriptions of the local deity Banda Brialeacus. Three layers of stone have been preserved, of which the lower and upper are the same in terms of the size of the blocks. The two-layer terrace wall on the slope below is also built. The middle layer consists of narrower blocks. The protruding bosses on the outer surfaces of the blocks are characteristic. This ornamental shape, which comes from Greek architecture , was popular in Roman times. The final cornice followed over the three stone layers, part of which is still visible on the mountain side.