Beja: Capital of Baixo Alentejo

The Low-Key Delights of a Small Regional Capital

26/09/2018

Portugal

The small city of Beja sits on a low hill in the southern Alentejo plain. Driving down the relatively new (and hence relatively straight) IP2 from Castro Verde, the gleaming white city can be seen 20km away.

Beja in the centre of Portugal's Baixo Alentejo

The Pousada Convento, Beja
It is, though, a small hill on a flat, parched plain, the final climb being almost imperceptible. With a little difficulty we located the Pousada Convento and on our way to reception, passed two soldiers filling sandbags. Even our notoriously insular press would have reported a civil war in Portugal (probably on page 18) and as flooding seemed improbable a sensible explanation eluded us.

The Pousada Convento, Beja - apparently defended by artillery

This was our first stay in a pousada, a hotel chain set up in 1941 modelled on the Spanish paradors. Government run until subcontracted to the Pestana Group in 2003, pousadas exist to provide comfortable accommodation in historic buildings and promote local gastronomy.

We were soon settled in a monk's cell in the former Convent of São Francisco (and the obvious error in that sentence isn’t an error). The convent was founded in 1268 for the Franciscan Order of the Friars Minor.

A corridor full of upgraded monk's cells, Pousada Covento, Beja

Monks live in monasteries, worshipping God within their (often well-funded) communities. Friars take the same vows of obedience, chastity and poverty - they originally lived by begging – but remain involved with the world, preaching or ministering to the sick. They live together in looser communities traditionally called ‘convents.’ Only in the 19th century, having lost touch with their Catholic roots, did English speakers start using ‘convent’ specifically for nunneries. I enjoy visiting foreign countries to learn English.

Our cell had been upgraded since the monks left, being now unsuitable for those who have taken a vow of poverty.

It had been a long day - we had risen at 4 for an early flight – and, in Portugal at least, exceedingly hot. Leaving the convent we found a café, sat in the shade and rehydrated (ie we drank beer). At 5 pm the temperature, according to the pharmacy across the road, was 33°. Beja is one of Portugal’s warmest cities, but even here such temperatures in late September are a talking point.

We returned to the convent for a nap before dinner, passing The Monument to the Unknown Political Prisoner, by Jorge Vieira who donated it to the city in 1994. Vieira (1933-98) spent his later years in Beja and is highly respected within Portugal, though little known internationally.

The Unknown Political Prisoner by Jorge Vieira, Beja

Seated on the Pousada’s terrace we dined on Alentejo specialities. A rain shower came from nowhere, though the temperature never dropped. Unmoved beneath an umbrella more used to keeping off sun than rain we waited, confident that it would pass, and indeed it did; long before we had finished eating all had dried up. Lynne's grilled porco negro, from free-range Iberian black pigs, was excellent and her portion of migas, the traditional accompaniment of bread mashed with olive oil and (in this case) asparagus was mercifully small - it is very filling. My favourite bochechas - pork cheeks stewed in red wine - were also delicious. The chef had popped a pear on the plate, perhaps attempting to elevate 'peasant food' to something it is not. It would have been a poor idea even if the pear had not been cinnamon-ed to inedibility. Our dinner could have been eaten in many local restaurants, but pousadas must justify their higher prices with extra touches, sometimes misjudged. Traditional dishes should not be messed with, there is a reason why they are as they are. We also enjoyed a bottle of Bacalhoa's fine Tinto da Anfora, maybe even worth its steep mark-up.

Dinner at the Pousada Convento, Beja

27/09/2018

Commemorating World War One, Beja

Apart from filling sandbags, servicemen had spent yesterday setting out the Pousada’s former church, usually a lounge, for a memorial service. The convent closed in the 19th century and the building was used by the military; they had returned as part of the 1918 centenary commemorations.

The former church of the Pousada Convento, Beja, set out for a commemorative service

After breakfast we discovered the exhibition in the cloister, which finally made sense of the sandbags. Germany declared war on Portugal in 1916, though skirmishes in Portugal’s African territories predated this.

Mock WWI machine gun emplacement, Pousada Convento, Beja

In addition to further fighting in Africa, it is not widely known that Portugal deployed 55,000 soldiers to the trenches in France.

Portuguese troops in France 1917 or 18
Photo from exhibition, Pousada Convento, Beja

Suitably enlightened we set off to explore Beja.

Roman Beja

The pousada is just outside the city walls so we entered through the remains of the Mértola Gate before turning left in search of Beja's oldest vestiges.

Into old Beja through the Mertola Gate

Today, Beja, with 22,000 inhabitants is the largest population centre and administrative capital of Baixo Alentejo (Lower Alentejo), a subdivision of Portugal’s vast but sparsely populated Alentejo region. Similarly, Roman Beja, known as Pax Julia after Julius Caesar conquered concluded a peace with the Lusitanian tribes, was the capital of Southern Lusitania.

Street art near the Nucleo Museologico

At first glance the 'nucleo museologico' is a modern building full of empty space….

The Nucleo Museologico, Beja

…but a small part of Roman Beja lies beneath the glass floor. Over a metre below current ground level Roman wells, walkways and hypocausts have been carefully excavated.

Beneath the floor at the Nucleo Museoligico, Beja

Around the perimeter is a display of finds from every period of Beja’s history starting with the stone tools of the region’s first inhabitants.

Roman bowl, Nucleo Museologico, Beja
I have no idea how they used this, but it has a certain charm

We left the 'nucleo' past more public art - I am not sure I see the point of this one.

Public art, Beja

Around 30BC, during the reign of Augustus, the municipium was renamed Pax Augusta, and so things remained for over 400 years. Around 410, when the Visigoths were sacking Rome, the Vandals, Alans and Suebi crossed the Pyrenees.  Last year, when we were slightly further east in Mértola, the arrival of the Alans led to 300 years of decline, Beja may have been luckier. The Vandals and Alans were soon pushed into North Africa by the Visigoths who expanded their kingdom in southern France until they ruled the whole Iberian Peninsula.

Visigothic Beja

We visited the Museu Visigotico after lunch but I will follow the history of Beja rather than the history of our visit.

The museum is at the north end of town, beyond the castle and outside the wall. We exited past the Roman arch at the Évora Gate, not through it, as the modern road exploits a far larger gap in the wall. I wonder if the arch can properly be called Roman, it has disappeared and been rebuilt several times since antiquity.

The so-called Roman arch, Evora Gate, Beja

The Museu Visigotico is housed in the former church of Santo Amaro, itself said to be a rare Visigothic survivor, but again redesigned and rebuilt so often that little of the original remains.

Apparently, I have underrated the Visigoths. While our forebears built with wood and thatch as the remains of Roman civilisation decayed around them, the museum showed the Visigoths as sophisticated builders and stonemasons.

 Stonework, Beja Visigothic Museum

In 507 the Visigoths lost their Gaulish lands to the Franks but continued to rule most of Iberia. Around 590 they abandoned Arianism, became mainstream Christians and gradually assimilated with their Romano-Iberian subjects.

Column, Beja Visigothic Museum

All went well until the Moors arrived in the early 8th century. They would rule most of Iberia for the next 500 years.

Pax Augusta had become Paca under the Visigoth, and as Arabic makes no distinction between P and B it is easy to see how it became Beja under the Moors. Little else remains from the centuries of Moorish rule

Medieval Beja

The Reconquista reached Beja in 1162 when Fernão Gonçalves took the city for King Afonso I. The Moors fought back and the Fronteira-Mor (Frontier Captain) Gonçalo Mendes da Maia, a veteran warrior known as O Lidador (The Hard-Working), was killed in battle in 1170 allegedly aged 90, becoming a hero in both his home town of Maia (now a suburb of Porto) and Beja. The city was retaken by the Moors in 1175 and remained in Muslim hands until being finally retaken by King Sancho II in 1234.

The consequence of being so long on the front line were dire and the depopulated city took several centuries to recover, though on the plus side, their fort was developed into a full-blown castle. A tower was built on the wall in 1307, and then a keep, though that took 40 years to complete.

Beja castle wall and keep

 We walked round the walls, enjoying a good view of Beja’s 16th century cathedral...

Beja Cathedral

….before entering the keep, guarded by a modern statue of O Lidador.

O Lidador stands guard in the keep, Beja castle

From here a spiral staircase leads up the tower. Medieval staircases usually turn clockwise, so that a (right-handed) defender’s sword arm is unencumbered by the central pillar. Beja Castle has a rare anti-clockwise staircase.

Anti-clockwise spiral staircase, Beja castle keep

The stairs took us to an octagonal upper room with an impressively vaulted ceiling.

A finely vaulted octagonal room in Beja keep
(what do you mean I should have kept my head out of the way?)

The balcony outside has many machicolations, holes in the floor through which crossbows could be shot or attackers pelted with stones or drenched in boiling oil. ‘Machicolations’ derives from the Old French for ‘wound-neck’ while the superficially similar Portuguese ‘mata-cães’ means ‘dog-killer', an unflattering reference to their foes. We were surrounded by much new stone. The castle was closed for eighteen months in 2014/5 after a balcony collapsed and we were undoubtedly standing on a new balcony with machicolations no-one ever expects to use.

Further non-spiral (so presumably later) stairs took us to the roof. The castle stands at the highest point of Beja's small hill and if you then climb a 37m tower you have commanding views over the old town...

Old Beja from the top of the castle keep

...and over the newer districts and the countryside beyond. Despite the long, hot, dry summers the soil is fertile and Baixa Alentejo is the breadbasket of Portugal so the town is surrounded by grain silos, the towers like an outer defensive ring beyond the city wall.

Outer Beja and the countryside beyond.
Half a turn to the left and I would have made my point with a line of grain silos, but here there is only one block

Lunch by the Pillory, Beja

Perhaps we should break for lunch here.

We ate in the Praça da República, in the centre of the old city at a café near the pillory. We usually think of a pillory as a ‘stand-up stocks’, but this is just a pillar to which those deemed worthy of ritual humiliating could be attached. It is a grand pillar, a wooden post would function just as well, but the quality and decorations remind everyone who had the power and the wealth.

Pillory, Praca da Republica, Beja

At one of the tables in the picture above we chose the lunchtime deal: chicken salad and a beer for €4.95. They seemed a little confused about the difference between a salad and a fruit salad - lettuce, tomato, pineapple, apple and mango made an unusual combination - but we enjoyed it. And it had been a hot morning so we had another beer, not for pleasure, obviously, but because hydration is so important.

Late Medieval Beja

Just because Beja was now in Christian Portugal it did not mean its Moorish (and Jewish) populations disappeared.

There is still an area known as the 'Moorish Quarter' just inside the city wall near the Moura Gate (named because it faces the city of Moura).

City wall near the Moura Gate, Beja

 It is a few streets of small, well-maintained, whitewashed cottages with colourful hanging baskets.

Moorish quarter, Beja

One doorway has a Moorish look, but that could have constructed last week for all I know.

Moorish style doorway, Moorish quarter, Beja

Just north of the Moorish Quarter is a fine old gentleman’s town house. When we first came to Portugal in the 1980s these so often looked sad and neglected. They are beautiful buildings and it is good to see their owners can now afford to take pride in them.

Gentleman's town house, Beja

All Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. Under pressure from his Spanish wife, Isabella of Aragon (sister of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s first wife) King Manuel I decreed in 1497 that all Jews and Moors must convert to Catholicism or leave Portugal without their children. Those who did convert were often treated with suspicion. Allegedly some Jews marked their houses with signs showing they still secretly followed Judaism. If any of that can still be seen in the old Jewish Quarter below the castle wall, we missed it.

Jewish quarter, Beja

Early Modern Beja

The other side of the castle is the medieval chapel of Nossa Senhora de Piedade. The building is 13th century, the friendly and talkative guardian told us, but not the contents.  When the Pousada Convento was taken over by the military, the interior of the church – the one we had seen set out for a memorial service this morning - was moved here. 13th century frescoes hide behind this baroque overcoat.

The contents of the church of the Convent of Sao Fransicso
Nossa Senhora ds Piedade, Beja

Beja Regional Museum

We now arrive at the last stop in this tour through Beja's history, though a much earlier one in our day, and it features more fussy baroque. The Convent of Our Lady of the Conception was founded in 1456, but since 1927 has housed the Beja Regional Museum. It was formerly the home of the 'Poor Clares', a female part of the Franciscan order, but a glance at the contents suggest they may have interpreted 'poor' in a way few would understand. The carved wood, gold leaf and inlaid marble altar (all impossible to dust, which is why nobody has for a century of so) are 17th and 18th centuries.

Church of Our Lady of the Conception, Beja Regional Museum

There are some fine 17th century Azulejos, this one, according the brochure shows the birth, life and death of John the Baptist, though either the brochure is wrong, or I misinterpreted it….

Azulejo allegedly of life of John the Baptist, Beja Regional Museum

…and two opulent silver plinths for ferrying saints through the streets.

Silver saint transporter, Beja Regional Museum

We ambled round the cloister, viewing the exhibits in the rooms off. The extensive collection of Portuguese, Spanish and Flemish oil paintings seem, to my amateur eye, to be of variable quality.....

Spanish and Portuguese oil paintings, Beja Regional Museum

....but the chapter house was impressive.

Chapter House, Beja Regional Museum

Upstairs is an exhibition of the finds of archaeologist Fernando Nunes Ribeiro and a window.

I am unsure if the window is the original or a replica but it is a literary cause célèbre. In 1665(ish) 25-year old nun Mariana Alcoforado caught sight of French officer Noël Bouton, later Marquis of Chamilly through this window (or the original) and fell in love with him. She wrote a series of passionate love letters first published in Paris in 1669 and in print ever since. The nun and her innamorato were undoubtedly real people, and although many nuns had vocations, convents were also used for parking surplus girls or taming wild ones. Published in French rather than Portuguese the letters are widely believed to be a work of fiction by Gabriel-Joseph de la Vergne, though in 2006 Canadian writer Myriam Cyr published a book arguing that Mariana Alcoforado was indeed the author. Had I had known all this at the time I would have photographed the window.

And so ended our exploration of Beja, a small, friendly, relaxed city with no major sights, but more than enough of interest to keep us occupied for a day.

An aperitif before dinner

That evening we dined at a small. cheap restaurant. Though far from the sea, by Portuguese standards, Lynne said her dorada was excellent, but my pork Alentejo-style was disappointing, there were too few clams, and too much chew in the meat, but it was cheap and I suppose you get what you pay for!

Next day we headed south to the Algarve and a fortnight's holiday.

Other Alentejo Posts

Évora (2016)
Mértola and Alcoutim: Strongholds by the Guadiana River (2017) - also under Algarve
Beja, Capital of Baixo Alentejo(2018)
Castro Verde (1): Surrounding Villages (2022)
Castro Verde (2): Castro Verde and Ourique (2022)
Serpa (2023)
The Alentejo, Eating and Drinking (2024)