The Alentejo, "beyond the Tagus", covers almost a third of Portugal but is home to fewer than one in ten of its people. It is a land of wide open spaces: wheat fields, olive groves, vineyards and cork oak woods, dotted with whitewashed villages and hilltop castles. The pace is slow, the food rustic and tasty, the wine among the country's best.
The region's cultural heart is Évora, a UNESCO site, with its Roman temple, cathedral and Chapel of Bones, surrounded by prehistoric dolmens and stone circles. Around it are the marble towns, Estremoz and Vila Viçosa, and the walled villages guarding the Spanish border: Monsaraz, above the great Alqueva lake, Elvas, with its UNESCO fortifications, and further north Marvão and Castelo de Vide, on the heights of the Serra de São Mamede.
The Baixo Alentejo, to the south, is the land of polyphonic cante alentejano, of Beja, Serpa and Moorish Mértola on the Guadiana. Towards the ocean, the Alentejo coast and the Costa Vicentina have some of Europe's wildest beaches, from Comporta to Vila Nova de Milfontes and Zambujeira do Mar, crossed by the trails of the Rota Vicentina.
Getting around
Évora is about an hour and a half from Lisbon by train or car, but a car is essential to explore the region. Below you will find the destinations on the map, our guides and all the municipalities of Évora, Beja and Portalegre districts.
Destinations on the map
Guides to the region
Arraiolos
A white Alentejo village known worldwide for its embroidered woollen rugs.
Beja
The capital of the Baixo Alentejo, among wheat plains, with a towering keep and a love story famous throughout Europe.
Castelo de Vide
A green, cool village on the slopes of the hills, with one of Portugal's best-preserved Jewish quarters.
Elvas
The world's largest system of bastioned fortifications, a few kilometres from Spain.
Estremoz
The white marble town at the heart of the Alentejo, dominated by the Holy Queen's tower.
Marvão
An eagle's nest of white houses and granite walls, more than 800 metres above the border.
Monsaraz
A village of stone and whitewash on a hill, overlooking the largest artificial lake in Western Europe.
Moura
A border town whose name recalls its Moorish past, among olive groves, springs and the great lake.
Mértola
A white village high above the Guadiana, where Roman and Islamic history is displayed in a dozen small museums.
Portalegre
A town of Baroque mansions at the foot of the hills, famous for its hand-woven tapestries.
Serpa
A white walled village, home to a famous cheese and to the choral singing of the Alentejo.
Vila Nova de Milfontes and Zambujeira
Cliffs, dunes and estuaries on Portugal's wildest coast, walked on foot along the fishermen's trail.
Vila Viçosa
The "princess of the Alentejo", seat of the Dukes of Braganza, built entirely of marble.
Évora
An open-air museum on the Alentejo plain, with Roman temples, Gothic churches and prehistoric stone circles.