The Carpets of Arraiolos

Arraiolos is a white hill town in the Alentejo with a ring of castle wall on top of it, and it has been making the same carpets for about four hundred years. They are not woven but embroidered: wool worked in a long-legged cross stitch onto a canvas backing, at first copying Persian designs that arrived through Lisbon and then drifting into local motifs of birds, flowers and country scenes. The work is slow, a large carpet running to months of stitching, and it is still done by hand in the town, often by women working at home for the shops. An interpretation centre in the old hospital explains the stitch and how patterns are dated.

What you actually see

• The long-legged cross stitch - the single stitch the whole tradition is built on.
• The workshops - carpets stretched on frames and stitched by hand in the town.
• The interpretation centre - stitch, dyes and pattern dating in the old hospital.
• The circular wall - the ring of castle wall on the hill above the white houses.

When to go

Year-round; the town is under an hour from Evora and makes a half day. Workshops keep shop hours and close for lunch, and Sunday is quiet to the point of shut. Spring gives the surrounding cork oak country its best colour. Autumn is comfortable, while high summer on the plain is punishing by midday.

Honest expectations

Prices are high and correctly so, because a hand-stitched carpet is hundreds of hours of work. That means the shops are not for casual browsing, and cheaper machine-made imitations are sold nearby to people who did not ask. The town itself is small and half an hour covers it. You may see nobody actually stitching unless you ask.

Nearby

Evora is under an hour south; Estremoz and its marble quarries lie to the east.