Castro Verde (1): Surrounding Villages

Rural Alentejo and the Site of a Great Battle (Maybe)

Faro to Castro Verde

27-Sept-2022

Portugal

Castro Verde
Municipality

Returning to our Covid-interrupted practice, we prefaced our Algarve holiday with a few days a little further north.

Faro to Castro Verde is 105km and takes just over an hour on modern roads. Much to the irritation of our sat nav, we decided to use the old N2 instead, though it did everything it could to divert us. Once a nationally important north-south route, it is 10km shorter, but its twists and turns almost double the journey time.

North from Faro to Castro Verde

We crossed the Algarve's coastal plain, a land of tourist development, figs and olives, regimented rows of orange trees and occasional vineyards. From São Bras the road starts to climb, a slow twisting drive through cork oaks and, higher up, eucalyptus. By Almodôvar we had reached Alentejo where the Campo Branco plain allowed much swifter progress.

As usual Lynne was sceptical of my ability to find the hotel, but even before passing the 'Welcome to Castro Verde' sign I had spotted the tower of the building across the street. I had seen Casa Dona Maria on Google Street View and it would stand out in any Portuguese small town. Typically streets look like this…

Castro Verde

…while Casa Dona Maria is this.

Casa Dona Maria, Castro Verde. Photographed from our hotel room balcony

A Neo-Gothic/Moorish/Manueline fantasy, it was built in the 1920s by a wealthy farmer called Álvaro Romano Colaço who may, some suggest, have had more money than taste.

It’s a Sandwich, Jim, but Not as we Know it

Finding a cafe for a late lunch we shared the largest cheese toastie known to humanity - we would happily have shared the non-sharing size.

It's a sandwich, Jim, but not as we know it, Castro Verde

By the time we had checked in to our hotel it was 3 o'clock, and as we had left home over 12 hours earlier it was nap time.

In the evening we visited the nearby Restaurant Alentejano. All the meals (otherthan toasties!) from this and other Alentejo posts are gathered in The Alentejo: Eating and Drinking, a companion post to Eating the Algarve

28-Sept-2022

Castro Verde, a Concelho, a Freguesia and a Town

Castro Verde, in south-central Portugal is one of the country's 308 Concelhos (municipalities) and one of the 14 that make up the District of Beja (we visited Beja in 2018) - often referred to by its old name of Baixa Alentejo.

The Concelho of Castro Verde and its position in Portugal (inset)

The Municipality of Castro Verde covers 500km² and is divided into 4 Freguesias (civil parishes) – the map above shows 5 but Casével was merged into Castro Verde parish in 2013. The name ‘Castro Verde’ can refer to either the whole municipality (pop 7,500), or the largest parish in the municipality (pop 4,000), or the largest town in that parish (pop c3,000). Confusing? Yes.

Ermida de São Pedro das Cabeça

Castro V. Parish

We decided to spend the morning seeing the sights outside the town, helpfully listed in a pamphlet in the hotel. The Ermida de São Pedro das Cabeça, is clearly considered the most important.

The Ermida, near the village of Geraldos, is 5km east of Castro Verde down a series of ever smaller roads. The final and smallest turns a bend, climbs a hill and there it is, a chapel of little architectural merit, standing alone on a windswept hill top. The door was locked and through the grimy window all we could see was cleaning equipment.

Lynne and the Ermida de São Pedro das Cabeças

Despite the bright blue sky, the sun had yet to warm the air and the strong breeze had a biting edge for which I was inappropriately dressed. To the west the Plain of Ourique, stretched past Castro Verde to the town of Ourique itself, and beyond.

Castro Verde across the Plain of Ourique

Eastwards it continues as far as they eye can see.

Eastwards across the Plain of Ourique

The Battle of Ourique

In 1139 Afonso (without an 'l') Henriques, Count of Portugal, was busy fighting King Alfonso (with an 'l') VII of Leon, to whom he was, theoretically, a vassal. The rulers of the petty kingdoms and counties of northern Iberia spent more time fighting each other than fighting the Moors who controlled the south of the peninsula.

Moorish incursions led him to disengage with Alfonso VII to safeguard his Southern boundaries. On the 25th of July, after God came to him in a vision and promised a great victory, he attacked and destroyed a much larger Moorish force led by five princes, all of whom were killed. This was the Battle of Ourique, after which Afonso Henriques was acclaimed King of Portugal – then just a modest area around Porto. He was crowned by the Archbishop of Braga in 1142 and recognised by Alfonso VII the next year. Ourique was the start of the Reconquista which would see the Moors driven from what is now Portugal by 1249. In Spain the Emirate of Grenada resisted until 1492.

In the late 16th century, the popular King Sebastião I (see Lagos for his story) visited this hillside and commanded the construction of ‘a very sumptuous building’ to commemorate the battle. He must have been disappointed, even by 16th century standards the Ermida is hardly ‘sumptuous’.

Other Battle Memorials

Behind the Ermida is a memorial pillar erected in 1940. Next-door in Spain, dictator Francisco Franco (ruled 1936-75) successfully used myths of the Reconquista to bolster his nationalist/fascist government. This would never quite work in Portugal but dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar (ruled 1936-68) was still keen to be seen as a legitimate successor of Afonso Henriques.

1940s Pillar Memorial to the Battle of Ourique

Behind that is another memorial erected in 1989, on the 850th anniversary of the Battle. Although behind the 1940 memorial, its brightness makes the dull pillar easy to ignore. Marcello Caetano, Salazar’s successor, was overthrown by a military coup on the 25th of April 1984, the Carnation Revolution which eventually led to Portugal becoming a liberal democracy. The newer memorial, colourful, original and with a joie de vivre that Salazar would never have tolerated, presents the new democratic government as a legitimate successor to Afonso Henriques.

1980s Memorial to the Battle of Ourique

But What is the Truth?

Some problems: across the whole vast plain no one has ever found evidence of a major battle – and Ourique is too far south for Afonso to have been dealing with a border incursion. He may have led a raiding party who were intercepted by a Moorish force, but that would have been skirmish, not a battle.

The chroniclers were unfamiliar with the area; there is a Vilã Cha de Ourique near Santarém which could be a possible location, but there is little corroboration in the Moorish chronicles.

The vision before the battle, the five dead princes - whose shields still adorn the Portuguese flag and are very clear on the 1940 memorial pillar above - and the victory against great numerical odds give the story an air of unreality. There must be a kernel of truth, Afonso Henriques did become the first king of an independent Portugal, but there has been some serious legend making.

São Marcos da Ataboeira

S Marcos, Parish

The pamphlet suggested we next head for São Marcos da Ataboeira, the ‘Parish Seat’ of Castro Verde’s easternmost Parish (or Freguesia). It promised only a church where the ' buttresses were in perfect harmony with the tower', but we went anyway.

The village is off the main road and straggles a remarkable distance for a place with a few hundred inhabitants. We eventually reached a small square with the church of São Marcos on one side. We got out of the car, observed that the church was locked and lined up a photo.

Square, São Marcos da Ataboeira

A middle-aged woman emerged from one of the nearby houses and marched towards us. I hoped she was coming with a key and an offer to unlock the church. 'Bom dia,' I said. She didn't answer, but stopped a couple of metres away and stared. Having run out of Portuguese small talk, I smiled and said it was a nice day. She continued to stare, and then she stared some more. I have not been stared at so hard or so long since we were in rural China. With my 'North European on holiday' look, I am obviously not a local, but surely I stood out much less than I would in a Chinese village.

After a while she turned and marched off. ‘Probably gone to fetch the men with the pitchforks,' Lynne mused.

We were not overly impressed by the harmony between the slabby buttresses and the stumpy tower - perhaps the writer had his tongue in his cheek - but we admired the bright blue paintwork. Then, as there was no sign of anyone with a key - or a pitchfork - we returned to the car and left.

Church of São Marcos, São Marcos da Ataboeira

São Marcos da Ataboeira to Entradas

The village of Entradas is in the northwest corner of its parish and a minor road from São Marcos takes a direct route. Right at the start a sign described the road as ‘submersíval’, not a difficult word to translate, but a surprise when all we could see was parched grassland.

In Grassland!

A little further on we followed a low embankment and passed another sign, identical to one on the road beside Portimão dock. There it accurately describes what could happen to those driving carelessly but here it looked a little melodramatic.

Our 10km journey crossed empty, rolling grassland, sometimes described as pseudo-steppe. About half way, it crossed a wide gully and the first sign, at least, began to make sense. It had not rained for months, but a sudden downpour would turn the gully into a stream and the road into a ford, if it was even passable.

Great Bustard, Photo Andrej Chudy*

Spain and Portugal are home to 60% of the world’s surviving great bustards, and the large ground-nesting birds live on such grasslands. The last British great bustard was shot in 1832, but they have recently been reintroduced on the grasslands of Salisbury plain.

We saw none during our drive, but the bird dominates the arms of São Marcos da Ataboeira while Entradas prefers a sheep, a turkey, poppies and wheat.

Entradas

Entradas Parish

Entradas is a larger village than São Marcos and was once strategically important, being on the main route from the river port of Mértola (see Mértola and Alcoutim, posted 2017) to the interior of the Alentejo Baixa. Later, Entradas was the entry (entrada) to the Campo Branco, the grazing grounds of which the Plain or Ourique is just a part. From the 14th to the 17th centuries drovers brought cattle and sheep, including the royal herds, here for seasonal grazing.

Entradas now sits on one side of the major road from Beja, but apart from access roads at each end of the village, it has turned its back on its former life-line. As the parish arms suggest the current economy is rural and based on sheep, cows, wheat, cork and olives.

Museum of Rural Life, Entradas

The village streets were never designed for cars. Several cobbled streets ran roughly parallel to the main road, with occasional cross streets, but this was not a grid plan; there were kinks and variations in width in the ‘parallel’ streets, one of which came to a dead end. We were aiming for the Museum of Rural Life, and passed a sign at the entrance of the village. We followed the arrow and, as there were no further signs, kept as straight as possible. We were soon at the other end of the village, where a ‘Museum’ sign pointed back the way we had come.

Turning round, we found our way to square which may have been the village centre…

Village square, Entradas

…and just beyond it, the museum.

Museo da Ruralidade, Entradas

It turned out to be a very good museum of its type, and free, to boot. Many of the exhibits have photos showing them in use. A wooden plough with a medieval look….

Wooden plough, Entradas Museum

…was in use when the photograph below was taken.

Wooden plough, Entradas Museum
The text concerns the change from wood to metal in the early 20th century

There was a horse-drawn sit-upon-harrow that would have provided the bumpiest of rides across the arid, hard-packed local soil.

Sit-upon harrow, Entradas Museum

Pottery was on display beneath a picture of the same pottery being sold.

Pottery, Entradas Museum

A reconstruction of a shelter…

Shelter, Entradas Museum

…was adjacent to a photograph of a similar shelter in use. The photo is dated 1959. I know I am old, but I was amazed this photo was taken in western Europe in my lifetime. I made a joke about pitchforks earlier, but this is a modern museum with a modern lay-out and technology; rural Portugal is very much part of the 21st century. The changes we have seen since our first visit 40 years ago are immense, in northern Portugal we had seen people collecting water from the village pump, in the Algarve the ladies of Vilarinhos (between Loulé and São Brás) still did their laundry in the communal wash house, but even so the Portugal of 1959 was barely recognisable in 1982, which in its turn is so unlike today. The whole world has changed, but Portugal has changed faster than most.

A shelter in use, Entradas Museum

There was also a threshing machine as every rural museum needs a threshing machine.

Threshing machine, Entradas Museum

Back to Castro Verde

We returned to town, passed the roundabout where sheep may safely graze, parked near our hotel and walked to the northern end of Rua Dom Afonso Henriques. It was not very far; Castro Verde is a small town.

Sheepy roundabout, Castro Verde

The town’s two most important churches sit beside or above this road, the Church of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios….

Nossa Senhora dos Remédios

….and further down, the Royal Basilica of Nossa Senhora da Conceição.

Basilica of Nossa Senhora da Conceiçã

Both were closed, but the garden by the Basilica had one of the more enigmatic memorials to the Battle of Ourique,

Battle of Ourique Memorial, Castro Verde Basikica

I also liked this house near the basilica.

House near the Basilica, Castro Verde

It was now lunchtime and as this post has now gone on long enough, I shall close it here, conveniently leaving enough material for the next post. As I started with a toastie, I will finish with a toastie; different café, different filling, and not sharing size, though it was sufficient for the two of us.

Toastie

An Afterthought

There are 25 photographs in this post. Apart from a couple of indistinct figures in the distance, there is no living human being in these photos other than Lynne and myself. This was not intentional, but it is a bit odd.

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)
The Alentejo, Eating and Drinking (2022)