Pelourinho de Algoso

Pelourinho, is a stone column placed in a public place in a city or town where criminals were punished and exposed. The big donataries, the bishops, the cabidos and the monasteries were also entitled to pillory, as evidence and instrument of feudal jurisdiction. The pillories were, at least since the end of the 15th century, considered the standard or symbol of municipal freedom. Or the pillory is a derivation, from very old customs, of the erection in the cities of the ius italicum of the statues of Marsias or Sileno, symbols of the municipal liberties, other historians refer to Columna or Columna Roman Moenia, an upright post in a public square in which sentenced persons were exposed to the people's mockery.