Golegã is a small village on the Ribatejo plain, between the Tagus and the Almonda, in a land of fertile fields and large estates where horses and bulls are bred. For most of the year it is quiet, but every November it becomes the "horse capital".
The Feira Nacional do Cavalo
The National Horse Fair, also called the St Martin's Fair, has been held for centuries in the days around 11 November, St Martin's Day. For about ten days the village fills with breeders, riders and enthusiasts: at its heart is the Largo do Arneiro, a large sandy arena where horses and carriages parade, dressage and working equitation competitions are held, and in the evening people drink água-pé (a light young wine) and eat roast chestnuts. The star is the Lusitano horse, a Portuguese breed famous for its elegance and agility, used in classical dressage and mounted bullfighting (see our page on the Lusitano horse).
What to see
The early sixteenth-century mother church has a splendid Manueline portal. An unusual visit is the house-studio of Carlos Relvas, one of the pioneers of photography in Portugal: around 1870 he built an iron and glass building, a kind of greenhouse turned into a photographic studio, now a museum. The village also has a small museum devoted to the artist Martins Correia.
Paul do Boquilobo
A few kilometres north is the Paul do Boquilobo Nature Reserve, a wetland that floods in winter and a UNESCO biosphere reserve since 1981: it hosts one of the largest heron colonies in the Iberian Peninsula and many water birds.
Getting there
Golegã is about an hour and a quarter from Lisbon by car (A1 and A23); Mato de Miranda station is a few kilometres away. It combines easily with Santarém, Almourol and Tomar.