Serpa lies on the left bank of the Guadiana, in the Baixo Alentejo, about thirty kilometres from Spain. It is a village of white houses with windows trimmed in yellow or blue, enclosed by medieval walls and surrounded by olive groves and fields, and it is famous for two things: cheese and cante alentejano.
The village
You enter the old town through the Porta de Beja, one of the gates in the walls. Along the walls runs a curious seventeenth-century aqueduct, which starts at a large nora, a water wheel for raising water, and carried water to the palace of the Counts of Ficalho. The thirteenth-century castle has an entrance gate topped by a huge block of fallen wall, and offers a fine view from the top. On the main square, Praça da República, stand the clock tower, one of the oldest in Portugal, and cafés where locals gather in the evening.
The cheese
Queijo Serpa is a raw sheep's milk cheese curdled with cardoon flower, with protected designation of origin. When young it has a soft, almost creamy paste, eaten with a spoon after cutting off the top of the rind. In the village you can visit a centre devoted to the cheese and buy it in shops.
Cante alentejano
Serpa is one of the centres of cante alentejano, unaccompanied polyphonic choral singing performed by groups of men or women, listed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage in 2014. At the Casa do Cante you can learn the history of this tradition, born in the work of the fields, and choirs can often be heard in taverns and at festivals.
Surroundings
About twenty kilometres away, in the Vale do Guadiana Natural Park, is the Pulo do Lobo waterfall, one of the most spectacular in southern Portugal. Serpa is half an hour by car from Beja and Moura, and about two and a half hours from Lisbon.