The beige stands on the crest of a high hill, surrounded by beautiful valleys, where grapes, olives and wheat are grown. The city can be proud of its rich history and the best example of medieval architecture in the whole country - the royal castle. At the same time today Beja is a quiet city, peaceful and even slightly sleepy, despite the many battles that he witnessed. It's unlikely to want to spend a week here, but it's worth a couple of days to come here.

How to get to Beja

You can get to the city by train from Evora, Faro or Lisbon. In addition, buses run from the largest Portuguese cities.

A bit of history

The city was known since Roman times, founded under Caesar in the place of the Celtic settlement .Being located on a hill, at an altitude of 270 m, he occupied a strategically important position for controlling the region .After Beja took possession of the Visigoths, he became an episcopal city, but after the capture by the Moors he lost this value .Since the 10th century, Christian kings have periodically tried to defeat the city with varying success .In the first half of the 13th century, Muslims finally left Beja, but all the vicissitudes of the past centuries adversely affected the population and status: Beja turned into a village .Only in the 16th century he was returned to the city status, and in the 18th century - the episcopal .At the beginning of the 19th century, the city was captured by the Napoleonic forces and carved out the inhabitants .

Entertainment, excursions and attractions Beja

Beja is an old and beautiful city, whose appearance retains the traces of a 400-year-old Moorish presence. Here there are narrow streets, and white houses with Moorish elements - in particular, beautiful ceramic tiles.

The central attraction of Beja is Castelo de Beja Castle, built by King Dinis in the 13th century on the remains of Roman fortifications reinforced by the Moors .This is a square massive structure consisting of walls with angular quadrangular towers and a central tower about 40 meters high, which is considered the highest in the country .From its top you can see the whole province of Alentejo and even the mountains of Sintra, if you climb here on 197 stairs past three vaulted halls with beautiful gothic windows .The walls of the castle are covered with hieroglyphs, and on the territory today there is a small military museum .

The ancient abbey of Nosa-Senhora da-Conceição is included in the state monuments .As a Franciscan monastery it was founded in the middle of the 15th century, and the construction of the building continued until the beginning of the 16th century .The monastery ceased to function in the first half of the 19th century .The building is decorated with an elegant architrave in the Late Gothic style, and the central spire is surprisingly elegant and finely decorated .Through the main entrance you can get to the baroque chapel with rich gilding and tiles on the walls .Here you can see four altars, three of which with wooden trim, and the fourth, dedicated to John the Baptist, decorated with Florentine mosaics in the late 17th century .

Today, the monastery houses the museum of the region, one of whose gems is an amazing collection of painted ceramic tiles - the largest in the country .In addition, here you can admire a collection of significant works of Flemish, Spanish and Portuguese pictorial art from the 15th to the 18th century .In 1987, .the museum was donated to the archaeological collection of Fernando Ribeiro, collected as a result of 40 years of research: her subjects are on the upper floors .These are bronze-era tombstones with inscriptions, and Iron Age arrows, and later artifacts .

One of the legends associated with the monastery and the city in general is the love story of the nun Marianna Alcoforado to the French officer Noel Buton, the Marquise of Shamilia and later to the French marshal .According to legend, in the 17th century the nun saw a young officer from the cell window and fell in love with him at first sight .Marianne wrote to her beloved a truly romantic and full of feelings letters, although their originals in Portuguese no one can not find today .Allegedly the letters were translated into French and published in Brussels .Then the cunning authors wrote a kind of sequels in the form of "later discovered" letters .Interest in this story was so great that in the 17th century the word "Portuguese" became synonymous with the idea of ​​a passionate love letter .

The snow-white church of Santo Amaru, which is near the castle, was built in the 5th century and shows the Visigothic architectural style .This is one of only four remaining churches in the country .Some fragments of the construction date back to the 6th century, and the interior columns and their capitals were artfully decorated with artistic carvings in the 7th century .Especially noteworthy is a column depicting birds attacking the snake .Today, the church has an archaeological museum, in the collection of which you can see a number of rare finds and objects of Visigothic art .

Another notable city church is the Santiago Mayor, which adjoins the castle .In the first half of the 20th century it was even a cathedral of the city .Despite numerous improvements and modifications, the church still retains Baroque features and looks even more elegant than the church of Santo Amaru .And the church of Santa Maria can be considered one of the oldest in the city: already in the 6th century it was a Visigothic temple, later the Moors mosque .True, most of the buildings that can be seen today date back to the 15th century .It is worth paying attention to the small church of Nosa Senora dos Pazeres, built in the 17th century .This is a perfect example of external simplicity, which is combined with a surprisingly beautiful interior .Today this church is part of the Beja Episcopal Museum .

Neighborhood Beja

Approximately 8 km south-west of the city is Pisos with the remains of the Roman settlement - the terms, mosaics, atriums and so on. And 25 km to the west is the city of Ferreira da Alentejo, where there are two interesting churches of the 16th century.

Mertola is located about 60 km from the city at an altitude of 85 m, on the slopes of the hills .For a long time this village belonged to the Moors and today it looks very characteristic .It is filled with white small houses, and the streets are laid from the main square up to the church and the castle .The church with a beautiful Renaissance entrance received its present appearance in the 16th century, and before that it was a mosque, which is still traced in terms of design .The castle also built the Moors, and in the 13th century it was increased by .From here you have an excellent view of the town and the river Gudianu, which from this point becomes navigable .