Districts: Portalegre, Évora, Beja and Setúbal
Area: 28,747sq.km/11,096sqmi
Chief town: Évora
The southern Portuguese province of Alentejo extends to the southeast of the Tagus ("além Tejo", beyond the Tagus) over a seemingly endless tableland as far as the Algarve, bounded on the east by the Spanish frontier and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. It is divided into the Alto Alentejo (Upper Alentejo, to the north) and Baixo Alentejo (Lower Alentejo, to the south). The Alentejo is one of the most unspoiled regions in the whole Iberian Peninsula. Comparatively few tourists come here, in spite of the fact that it has much to offer - endless green meadows, olive groves and cork-oaks glittering in the sun, as well as some
magical little medieval towns, such as Castel de Vide, Elvas, Estremoz, Beja and Marvao. Évora, the chief town of the whole province, should not be missed by any traveler to Portugal.
Topography
The lonely, barren and almost featureless landscape is reminiscent of more northerly latitudes, and a remarkable contrast to the hilly terrain and luxuriant vegetation of most of the Portuguese provinces.
Geologically Alentejo is a continuation of the Castilian Meseta, a residual expanse worn down and levelled by erosion, resting on Palaeozoic rocks of the Iberian basement. The land rises to average heights of between 150 and 350m/500 and 1,150ft, reaching barely 400m/1,300ft at its highest point in the southwest and with its only "real" mountains in the northeast, the Serra de Sao Mamede (1,025m/3,365ft).
Climate
The climate is Mediterranean, but with some continental features: a cold but snow-free winter, a short spring with little rain, a hot, dry summer and frequent showers of rain in the autumn. The rainfall is relatively low, an annual average of 600-700mm/24-28in.
Vegetation
Given this climatic pattern, the natural vegetation is confined to modest evergreen heaths and oaks and sclerophyllous evergreens (woody plants with small leathery leaves). The few trees mostly grow in isolated clumps. The cork-oak is widely distributed, and makes an important contribution to the economy of the region.
Population
The town of Alentejo has barely 4% of Portugal's population - spread over at least a fifth of the country's area, Alentejo is very sparsely populated, with a density of 21 to the sq.km/54 to the sq.mi. There are concentrations of population in a few smallish towns and large villages, but for the rest the rural population is widely dispersed, living in and around large isolated farms (montes). These are often on low hills and consist of the farmhouse itself, the houses of the farm workers and the various farm buildings and are usually surrounded by great expanses of farmland. The buildings, with walls of beaten earth, are carefully white-washed, and with their flat roofs and intricately decorated openwork chimneys have preserved many Moorish features.
Culture
Alentejo is a region of very ancient settlement, with numerous remains of Stone Age occupation (standing stones and megalithic chamber tombs, known as antas, being particularly common in Alto Alentejo) and of the Roman and Moorish periods.
The purely agricultural character of the region is reflected in the architecture: here the seafaring motifs common in the architectural ornament of the Manueline period give place to agricultural motifs (ears of corn, plants, farm implements).
Economy
Although Alentejo has a fifth of Portugal's total coastline the life and activities of the region revolve around the interior. The west coast is developing very gradually as far as tourism is concerned, for example, near Vila Nova de Milfontes. Less than 1% of the country's total catch of fish comes from here, and the endless stretches of broad beach are empty and scarcely known to tourists. The people of the Alentejo region live almost exclusively from agriculture. In spite of the sparse population and the extreme aridity, almost the whole area is carefully cultivated. In the west, on poor soils, extensive monoculture predominates (corn, grown by dry-farming methods); in addition grazing farming (with a third of the total Portuguese stock of cattle) is carried on throughout the year, together with the growing of cork-oaks (montados), pig-farming and charcoal-burning. The wet and fertile coastal areas and the land on the weather side of the hills in the northeast are the granary of Portugal, growing in addition to grain (wheat, rye, maize) large quantities of fruit and olives.
Alentejo is also the home of a celebrated breed of horses, the Alter Real, which has been reared here since the mid 18th C. and is particularly prized for dressage.
The problem of irrigation is of fundamental importance in this agricultural province. The rivers which flow through the region are almost dry in summer and are thus of little use for irrigation; but there is an ambitious plan to build a series of dams on the Tagus and Guadiana and the Guadiana's left-bank tributary, the Rio Chança, and pump the water throughout the region in a dense network of canals.
Hobbies & Activities category: Region with significant interests
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