Page 302 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Portugal

EXPERIENCE MORE

3 network of roads still winds pousada and the 15th-century
Igreja Matriz. Rua do Espírito
among the trim white villages,
Serra de São Mamede offering grand views. Santo leads past the former
From Portalegre, the road governor’s house (now a bank)
! F4 @ From Portalegre climbs for 15 km (9 miles) to with its 17th-century iron
EXPERIENCE Alentejo 245 307 445 1,025 m (3,363 ft). A minor fountain, up towards the castle.
n Rua Guilherme Gomes
the Pico de São Mamede at
balcony, and a Baroque
Fernandes 22, Portalegre;
road leads south to Alegrete,
Built by King Dinis in about
1299, the castle dominates
The diverse geology and
a fortified village crowned by
its ruined 14th-century castle.
capricious climate of this
the village. Its walls enclose
two cisterns and a keep. The
remote mountain range,
which could be on the
south and west towards the
Mediter ranean rather than the
Serra de São Mamede and
Atlantic Ocean, encourage a 4 castle offers spectacular views
fascinating range of flora and Marvão east to the Spanish frontier.
fauna. In 1989, 320 sq km (120 ! F4 £ @ n Largo da The Museu Municipal, in
sq miles) of the Serra were Silveirinha; 245 909 131 the former church of Santa
designated a Nature Park, as Maria, retains the main altar,
classified by the EUROPARC This serene medieval hamlet and has an exhibition of
Federation. Red deer, wild boar is dramatically set at 862 m traditional remedies and local
and the cat-like genet live (2,828 ft) on a spectacular archaeo logical finds from
among the sweet chestnut escarp ment facing Spain. Palaeolithic to Roman times.
trees and holm oaks, and Its 13th-century walls and
streams attract otters and 17th-century buttres ses Museu Municipal
amphibians, such as the Iberian blend seamlessly into the " ⌂ Largo de Santa Maria
midwife toad. Look out, granite of the mountains, § 245 909 132 # Tue–Sun
too, for griffon vultures and making it an impregnable
Bonelli’s eagles soaring over- strong hold. The Romans,
head, as well as bats from one who called the out crop
of Europe’s largest colonies. Herminius Minor, were INSIDER TIP
The Serra’s apparent followed by the Moors (the Take a Dip
emptiness is deceptive: name may have come from Head to the little village
megaliths suggest that it was Marvan, a Moorish leader) of Portagem, below
settled in prehistoric times, whom the Christians evicted Marvão, and cool off
and rock paintings survive in with difficulty only in 1166. in the Praia Fluvial
the Serra de Cavaleiros and The walls completely de Portagem, which
Serra de Louções. Below enclose the little collection is a shallow, but very
Marvão is the Roman town of of whitewashed refreshing river beach.
Ammaia, and the Roman houses, a

The castle at Marvão, set
impressively among
granite mountains
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