Tourist Attractions in Portalegre

The district capital of Portalegre (happy gate), the Roman Amoea, lies near the Spanish frontier at the foot of the Serra de Portalegre, a westerly outlier of the Serra de Sao Mamede. With its white houses reaching up the steep slopes of the hill and its numerous handsome old palaces it is the great showcase of Portuguese Baroque architecture. The old episcopal city rose to prosperity in the 16th C. through its woolen industry, in particular the production of tapestries, but its real heyday came in the late 17th C. with the rise of the silkweaving industry.

Today Portalegre is still important for its woolens, but also for woodworking and corkprocessing.

Since its nearby industry makes Portalegre a rather noisy and hectic place tourists usually only pause briefly on their way through to the two pleasant resorts further north, Castelo de Vide and Marvao.

Townscape

The old town center of Portalegre is surrounded by medieval walls, with the ruins of the massive medieval castle (1290) at the highest point. The town's most notable buildings, many of them no longer at their best, are grouped around the Praça do Município. North of it is Portalegre's modern center, the traffic swirling round the Rossio, in its splendid garden setting. Around the busy square are handsome mansions, government buildings, the Misericórdia hospital, with an 18th C. facade and a beautiful patio, and the tourist information center.

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