Vila Viçosa and Borba
Alluring Alentejo: Day 3
Tuesday, 8 October 2024
Here in the small town of Vila Viçosa, we are in the heart of the Alentejo region of south-central Portugal. Under our feet lies a geographic area known as the Estremoz Anticline, where Portugal’s acclaimed white marble has been extracted since Roman times.
Towns and villages around the Alentejo gleam with the local stone, where it proudly adorns façades, fountains, doorsteps, benches and pavement. It’s truly amazing. Literally everything is made of marble where we would normally see stone, concrete or brick in America. We joked among ourselves that if you called to get a quote to put in a cement or marble curb, driveway or sidewalk, you would probably find that concrete would be triple the price!
Just about everything you see in the above photo is marble - curbs, monument, church, buildings. Even the sidewalks in this region are made of marble chips. It’s remarkable. Or perhaps I should say, “remarbleble” LOL.
As mentioned in yesterday’s post, our AHI tour is called “Alluring Alentejo” and today marks the first of five full days that we will explore a different part of the region via foot and bus.
This morning began with a short walking tour of Vila Viçosa. And if it looks gloomy and gray, that’s because it was. The region is typically very dry to begin with and they have been suffering a bit of a drought. No worries, we brought a week’s worth of rain along with us.
This local church was the first of dozens we would visit this week. A historically Roman Catholic country, Portugal has a seemingly endless number of churches in every town we visited.
The other thing just about every town had besides churches was a medieval fortress of some sort. Here in America, we think two hundred years is old. In Portugal, old is the 13th or 14th century fortress in the heart of your city.
After this short tour of Vila Viçosa, we boarded a bus for a short 15-minute trip to nearby Borba to visit an active marble quarry.
This was an incredible experience…
I believe they said this quarry is over 1500’ deep. Maybe much more. Each of the layers you see are about 8’ tall. It was simply amazing.
After visiting the quarry, we stopped by Vila Borba and saw a marble fountain built in 1781.
After this brief stop, we were off to the João Portugal Ramos winery at Vila Santa to enjoy a tour of the winery and cellars before savoring a delicious lunch paired with fine Portuguese wines.
After the winery, we headed back to back to Vila Viçosa for a tour of the marble-clad Ducal Palace, the royal house of the Bragança dynasty.
No photography was allowed but I can assure you it was an incredible experience and highly recommended if you find yourself in Vila Viçosa.
Before dinner on our own this evening, the tour included a wonderful lecture called “Alentejo, Portugal’s Best Kept Secret” by local historian Melanie Sylvie Wolfram. Given this entire tour is geared toward education and cultural enrichment, this lecture was absolutely perfect.
Overall, a very busy and exciting first full day in Portugal!
Sounds and looks like a fabulous adventure!
Who knew??? That was an incredibly fun and informative post…thanks! Have fun and be safe.