Alentejo Monsaraz Portugal

A tour around Monsaraz. Xerez, Orada, Corval, Valentine Rock and the Monsaraz River Beach.

* Monsaraz: *
Video of the village https://youtu.be/cHebpdFnQPI

* Cromeleque do Xerez *
The Xerez's cromlech was erected between the beginning of the 4th and the mid-3rd millennium BC. Its unique quadrangular shape develops around a central menir of about 4m in height, which presents on one of its faces several "dimples" in all their verticality.

This megalithic monument consists of 50 granite menirs, of phallic form, whose height varies between 1,20m and 1,50m. Although the majority of these menhirs are partially fractured, the fact that they are prostrate "in situ", allowed the eventual reconstruction of its original form.

This cromlech was the only monument in the region to be transferred in 2004 due to the construction of the Alqueva dam, next to the Convent of the Orada.

* Convento da Orada: *
Implanted in the middle of the plain, north of the town of Monsaraz and near the place of Ferragudo, the Convent of the Orada stands out for its size and whiteness in a sparsely wooded area.
The place where today stands the cross in front of the church, corresponds to the space occupied by an old hermitage founded by D. Nuno Alvares Pereira. This hermitage underwent profound changes in the late sixteenth century, having passed to the Order of Santiago by the will of the Duke of Braganza. Finally, in 1670, the temple was given to the Barefoot Augustinians who, in 1700, founded the convent, demolishing the secular hermitage.
The construction of the convent will only be completed in 1741 but, shortly after, in 1755, will suffer with the impact of the great earthquake. In 1820, on the occasion of the restructuring of the order, part of the assets of the already extinct convent of Nossa Senhora da Orada were annexed to the convent of Portalegre.

* Fluvial Beach of Monsaraz: *
The Fluvial Beach of Monsaraz, situated in the Nautical Center of Monsaraz, in an inland zone far from the sea, is the first fluvial beach of the Alqueva reservoir.

* São Pedro do Corval: *
The tradition of pottery in São Pedro do Corval goes back to prehistoric times, due to the existence of deposits of clays, which have always motivated this activity.

Through pots, potters' wheels and ovens, we find unique traditional utility pieces that carry us back to the old days when the clay was molded to the needs of the fields and the humble lives in the Alentejo.

Today we find in São Pedro do Corval true works of art, both in form and in decoration - ceramic painting - made with an ancestral knowledge and a characteristic aesthetic of the region. Together with the unique experience of being able to see the clay to be molded by the experienced hands of the master potter on his wheel and to share his knowledge and experiences, São Pedro do Corval, with more than 20 docks in constant excellence the largest center of potters in the country and one of the largest in the Iberian Peninsula.

* Menir da Rocha dos Namorados: *
It is a menir consisting of a block of natural granite, more than two meters high, which has a shape similar to that of a mushroom or a uterus.

This rock is associated with a centuries-old pagan fertility rite, which consists of: the girls of marriageable age, will consult the rock (as if it were an oracle), to know how much time remains to be married. For this purpose they shoot up the menhir, a stone. If this stone does not stand on the rock and fall to the ground, it means they have to wait another year for the wedding. This consultation with the valentine's rock was usually done on Easter Monday.