It is certain that the built-up urban area of Mafra was once a fortified community, with the area of "Rua das Tecedeiras" being the best example of the walls still being visible. The limits of the castle, which was implanted on the Neolithic settlement, was successively reoccupied until the Iron Age, and taking up the entirety of the "old village". This includes the space limited in the east by the "Largo Coronel Brito Gorjão", the south by the "Rua das Tecedeiras", west by the "Palácio dos Marqueses de Ponte de Lima" and north by the "Rua Mafra Detrás do Castelo". A dense forest that existed until the 20th century, in "Quinta da Cerca" in this area, that protected and sheltered the settlement from winds.