Belmonte is a small town in the Cova da Beira, on a hill between the Serra da Estrela and the Serra da Esperança, not far from Covilhã. Small as it is, it has an extraordinary history tied to two very different stories: the discovery of Brazil and the survival of a secret Jewish community.
Pedro Álvares Cabral
Around 1467 Pedro Álvares Cabral was born here, the navigator who in 1500, commanding the fleet bound for India, reached the coast of Brazil. The thirteenth-century castle, his family's residence, has a Manueline window with the Cabral coat of arms. Next to it are the Romanesque church of Santiago, with the Cabral pantheon, and the Discoveries Museum, which tells of the voyage and the encounter between the Portuguese and the peoples of Brazil. The town also has an olive oil museum.
The Jews of Belmonte
After the forced conversion of Jews imposed in 1497 and the arrival of the Inquisition, many Belmonte families went on practising their faith in secret for more than four centuries, passing prayers and rituals from mother to daughter, marrying within the community and showing a Catholic life to the outside world. They were "discovered" in 1917 by the Polish Jewish engineer Samuel Schwarz, who was astonished to find them. Only at the end of the twentieth century did the community return to official Judaism, and in 1996 the Bet Eliahu synagogue was inaugurated. The Belmonte Jewish Museum, opened in 2005, tells this unique story.
Centum Cellas
A few kilometres from town rises the tower of Centum Cellas, an enigmatic three-storey Roman granite building with many openings, probably part of a first-century villa. Belmonte is about 20 minutes by car from Covilhã, or by train to Belmonte-Manteigas station.