Alentejo
Alentejo region is the place where time and space meet.
Here your spirit will slow down and you will gladly mingle with the local people, breathing the local calm and happiness!
Alentejo is an endless open space! Colours and smells burst from the land while the night falls upon the planes and when finally the night comes, it is the moment to stare at the skies and watch the stars with the naked eye.
The real Alentejan soul is not only in the unmistakable outline of the typical white and yellow houses painting the tops of the hills, in the traditional arts and skills conserved and renewed, but also in the “choral chanting” that only the Alentejanos know how to sing, with their heart and soul.
Discover Alentejo
Eating, drinking and snacking are rituals, ways of socializing and celebrating!
In a truly Alentejan’s home, the table is always set! This is the main requirement for discovering this region’s gastronomy and wines. They are part – and a happy part – of the most authentic daily life of the Region. Here, there are more than 250 producers, with an area under cultivation in the order of 22,000 hectares.
Alentejo’s wine quality comes from various factors: the perfect marriage between the grape varieties used and the various types of soil; the thousands hours of sunlight; the growers discipline, who understand that good wine begins with good vines; and finally, the skills that the oenologists have revealed in the art of winemaking, conciliating tradition and modernity. The white wines are aromatic, fresh and harmonious as the result of varieties blending. The reds have intense bouquets of well-matured red fruits and are smooth, balanced, and full-bodied. Although they are amazing young wines, they age graciously to complex and smooth flavours.
In Alentejo, the strength of the earth marks the time flow, and cities like Évora and Elvas, classified World Heritage by UNESCO, show the tenacity of the people.
Walls to scan the Horizon
The whole landscape of Alentejo is dotted with castles, forts, watchtowers and fortified towns, bearing witness that, with the Christian Reconquest firmly established in the south, it was necessary to continue to defend the country’s frontiers of the country to the east, responding to wars with Spain, to prevent attacks by sea from the west and, throughout the interior, to slow down any advances not contained by the frontier defenses.
The Moorish Ambience
The period of Arab occupation, begun in the 8th century, lasted in the south of Portugal for almost 500 years. From this long period of shared occupancy, we have inherited agricultural tools and techniques, systems for capturing and storing water, culinary customs, hundreds of different words, construction techniques, decorative tastes, artistic styles, urban environments. The archetypes of many of our castles from the Reconquest are Moorish in character and several Christian churches were built over earlier mosques.
The Convent Ambience
Everything begins, once more, at the time of the Reconquest, when kings and military religious orders joined forces to put to an end the occupation of the “infidels”. From the origins of Nationality to the 19th century, first with the help of the military, then with the mission to evangelize, educate, and (in the dark times of the Inquisition) to defend the orthodox Catholic faith, the Clergy, ordained and secular, have played a very important part in Alentejo history. For centuries, the church and the religious orders were the major landowners in the Region.
Évora a World Heritage Center
Évora is the inevitable reference point for anyone coming to the Alentejo inspired by the theme of Heritage. Classified by UNESCO as A World Heritage Site, Évora justly occupies an important place in any Cultural Tourism itinerary.
Its architectural and artistic heritage is so omnipresent and impressive that this alone guides the steps of anyone who loves strolling around with no fixed direction: from the Roman to the Baroque, all the epochs of history are documented with works that fully satisfy the eye and the soul.
Traditional Arts and Crafts
Handicrafts in the Alentejo are changing. The time has gone when they were identified only with the rugged faces of the old masters, who worked in clay, iron, pewter, wood, cork, leather, horn, and with the skilled hands of women who painted everyday dishes, made lace, did embroidery or spent endless hours in front of their looms.
Among the Arts that are establishing the right to have a future, we highlight three: pottery and painting, and finally textiles (the famous carpets of Arraiolos). They are linked to two well-defined centers of production/creation, which nowadays provide hands-on training for curious visitors.
A unique and delicate system whose balance is responsible for much of the biodiversity of fauna and flora.
Nature in it´s pure state – Serra de Ossa
Oaks, holm oaks, and olive trees are the most common forest trees in Alentejo and constitute a very unique and delicate system whose balance is responsible for much of the biodiversity of fauna and flora. Alentejo is also largely dependable on its water resources and that´s why the greatest lake of Europe was built: to ensure the existence of a strategic water reservoir, as well as to enable the agricultural watering process. The plains characteristic of Alentejo and the corresponding lack of orographic barriers prevent condensation of moisture coming from the ocean, denying a more marked Atlantic influence. However, the few orographic points that arise on Alentejo, are the main ones responsible for the regulation and identity of its wine sub-regions. It´s curious to observe how potential problems were solved by nature and Alentejo people. No wonder they are so proud of their culture…
Through Alqueva magic lands
The immense expanse of water has an area of 250 km2, extends for more than 80kms up the course of the Guadiana river, and with its thousand inlets, has a perimeter of 1,160 kms. The new beauty that resulted from this construction has mingled perfectly with the traditional one: made up of thousands of olive trees, corks, holms, and also the notable heritage of fortified towns and villages which have defended the border throughout centuries.
Available Tours in Alentejo
Alentejo region preserves the promise of a bright future based in the life quality of its towns, the vanguardism of its universities, the silence, the peaceful character of its people, the freshness of the air you breathe. And time… Alentejo has a very specific sense of experiencing it. When you feel time passing slowly, you will feel that it is something rather unusual, that makes you forget the everyday routine. You end up feeling it as one of your most precious possessions. Lets discover this peace together?
