Monsaraz

Monsaraz sits on a quartzite ridge above the Guadiana at the eastern edge of the Alentejo, a walled village of two streets and a few hundred metres of whitewashed houses, held by the Templars and then the Order of Christ and fortified against Castile a few kilometres away. The castle at one end has a keep and a wall circuit, and its parade ground was converted into a bullring in the nineteenth century and is still used. Below the walls the landscape changed completely in 2002 when the Alqueva dam flooded the Guadiana valley to create the largest artificial lake in Western Europe, drowning villages and archaeology and turning Monsaraz from a hill town above a river into one above a lake. The area is certified as a Dark Sky Reserve, with very low light pollution, and megalithic sites - the Xerez cromlech, standing stones and dolmens - are scattered nearby.

History

The hilltop has been occupied since prehistory, amid hundreds of megalithic monuments, and under Arab rule it was known as Saris or Sharish. Gerald the Fearless took the castle in 1167, it was lost again, and in 1232 Sancho II retook it with the Knights Templar; after 1383-1385 it passed to Nuno Álvares Pereira and later to the House of Braganza (Wikipedia, Monsaraz).

What you'll find

• The walled village - two streets of whitewashed houses inside intact walls.
• The castle bullring - a parade ground converted for bullfighting and still used.
• The Alqueva lake - Western Europe's largest reservoir, created in 2002 below.
• The dark sky - certified reserve status with very low light pollution.

When to go

March to June and September to November; Alentejo summers are extremely hot. Half a day, or an overnight for the stars.

What to expect

Very hot with no shade in summer. The village is tiny and can be walked in half an hour. Accommodation and restaurants are limited and expensive for the region. The lake drowned villages and sites, which is worth knowing when looking at it.

Nearby

The Xerez cromlech is below; Reguengos and the Alentejo wine country are west.

Key facts