WATCH MUSEUM
- Convento do Mosteirinho.
- Tel: 284 543 194.
-
Tue–Sun.
SERPA
-
6,000.
-
-
Largo Dom Jorge de
Melo 2–3 (Tel: 284 544 727 ). -
last Tue of
month.
Serpa’s stout walls are topped by an arched aqueduct. Beside the monumental Porta de Beja is a nora , or Arab water
wheel. Won from the Moors in 1232, Serpa successfully resisted foreign control
until a brief Spanish occupation in 1707.
Today, Serpa is a quiet agricultural town known for ewe’s-milk cheese. Pleasing
squares and streets of whitewashed houses are overlooked by a Moorish castle , rebuilt in the late 13th century. The 15th-century Convento de Santo António in Rua da Ladeira is noted for
flamboyant 18th-century azulejos . Serpa also has an
interesting Watch Museum .
ENVIRONS
Serpa is just 35 km (22 miles) from the Spanish border. The Moors, and later
Spain, fought for control of the region, which was finally ceded to Portugal
in 1295. Continued disputes have left the legacy of a chain of watchtowers
and a peppering of fortresses across these hills. One of the most remote,
the deserted fort at Noudar , was built in 1346, but even
in this isolated corner, evidence of pre-Roman habitation has been
uncovered.
On the border at Barrancos , an incomprehensible mix of
Spanish and Portuguese is spoken. A speciality here is pata
negra (black trotter), a ham from the local black pigs.
Serpa’s great Porta de Beja
LOVE LETTERS OF A HEARTSICK NUN
Lettres Portugaises , published in French in 1669, are
celebrated for their lyric beauty. They are the poignant letters of a nun
whose French lover deserted her: she was Mariana Alcoforado, born in Beja in
1640; he was the Comte de Saint-Léger, later Marquis de Chamilly, fighting
in the Restoration wars with Spain. The true authorship of the five letters
may be in doubt, but the story of the lovelorn nun endures – Matisse even
painted her imaginary portrait. Sentimental visitors to the convent of Nossa
Senhora da Conceição (now the Museu Regional) in Beja still sigh over
“Mariana’s window”.
