The Alentejo

Scenery, open spaces, castles, history, archaeology

ROUTE: Lisbon • Évora • Marvão • Estremoz • Monsaraz • Grândola • Mértola • Faro WHEN TO GO: Spring and autumn are best. Summers can be baking.

WHY DO IT: For a multi-stop tour through sun-baked plains of cork-forest, historic towns, whitewashed villages, Moorish citadels and hilltops crowned with castles.

Over the last few years the Alentejo – literally ‘beyond the Tagus’ – has become suddenly and unexpectedly popular. However, the region covers a huge area, about a third of the country but with barely a tenth of the population, so it still feels empty and in parts remote. A journey across the region between Lisbon and Faro in the Algarve, is the practical way to make the most of it.

The unmissable marvel is Évora, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and sightseers’ dream. Treasures, all tightly packed within massive city walls, range from Portugal’s best-preserved Roman temple to a chapel lined with human skulls. Then there are gleaming towns built from the locallyquarried marble: Estremoz where a legendary queen worked miracles; and Vila

Viçosa, seat of Portugal’s last royal dynasty.

Marvão and Monsaraz are spectacular walled hill villages dominated by medieval castles. Further south you can stay on a cork-growing plantation near Grândola, or by tranquil Lake Alqueva, a vast expanse of water, artificially created by a dam.

Mértola, on a rocky gorge of the Guadiana river in the far south, has a fabulous fortress and Portugal’s only surviving Moorish mosque.

On the plains around Évora in the Alentejo are several striking dolmens, stone circles, menhirs and other prehistoric monuments dating from as far back as 5000BC. The Almendres Cromlech complex, and the Great Dolmen of Zambujeiro, are both near the city and easily accessible. Some visitors find these hold powerful mystical energy.