At the time of the Christian Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, Pena Sortelha, as it was then called, was constituted in defense of the border region, disputed between Portugal and Castile. From 1187 onwards, D. Sancho I (1185-1211) took measures to repopulate the place, and it was his homonymous grandson, D. Sancho II, who granted the town a charter (1228), the probable time when the castle was built. The village's fence would benefit from D. Dinis in the 13th century, who, after the signing of the Treaty of Alcanises (1297), established the borders beyond the lands of Riba-Côa. In the following century, a new fence was erected on the initiative of D. Fernando.
In the 15th century it is known that the mayor of the castle was Manuel Sardinha, succeeding him by Pêro Zuzarte.
In 1510, D. Manuel I (1495-1521) renewed the Vila's charter, mentioning that its inhabitants were not obliged to provide lodging to the great and small of the kingdom, if that was the will of the people of Sortelha.