Page 293 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Portugal

Brightly coloured bunting outside a church in Redondo

ALENTEJO

Stone circles, dolmens and other relics of
Stone Age life pepper the Alentejan plain,
particularly around Évora, a historical gem of
a city at the region’s geographical centre. Évora,
like Beja, Elvas and Alter do Chão, was founded
by the Romans, who valued this land beyond the
Tagus – além Tejo – for its wheatfields. Introducing
irrigation systems to overcome the soil’s aridity,
they established enormous farms to grow grain
for the Empire. Worked by peasant farmers, these
huge estates, or latifúndios, still exist.
Vineyards across the region have long produced
powerful wines, and some areas are classified at
the Denominação de Origem Controlada (DOC)
level. Since 1986, Portugal’s membership of
the European Union has increased the rate
of investment and modernization, although the
region is still sparsely populated, supporting only
10 per cent of the population. Land tenure has
always been a concern here, and Communism
has a strong appeal – the Alentejans were
solid supporters of the 1974 revolution (p47).
Portuguese people from other regions mock
the amiable alentejanos for their traditional
ways, but they are widely admired for their
singing, handicrafts, gastronomy and wines.
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