. Initiative .


. An Event .

Who would have thought that the best of Statuary Art was spread out over the fields, through the streets of Alpalhão, near the Tagus River. Out there, within the reach of everyone, admirers of art, carefree tourists and dedicated photographers.

This is the opportunity to see each piece, each work of art. Admire every stroke, every impact, every line. From blocks without form were born by the carving and chisel what was always there in that block. Only the excess has been withdrawn. For who knows, because who likes, who feels.

Some needed the industrial mastery of composition, arrangement, fitting, assembly, as if it were easy to gently compose the tons of stone into thoughtful, harmonious and balanced logic.

This is the ride that unites many of these pieces. That links art to the earth, artists to spaces, experiences to souls. From the urban nucleus of Alpalhão to the surrounding fields, to the Chapel of Senhora da Redonda, place of so many cults, so many people, so much stone.

The Tagus River is a way of communication of peoples throughout the ages, sliding in its waters or walking along the trails on its banks.

Looking for food or running away from danger, hunting or taking cattle, looking for new land or seeking riches. So have been the banks of the Tagus.

And it was precisely wealth - the gold sliding down the river - that the Roman explorers sought, removing from the bed the thousands of tons of rolled pebbles that piled along the banks, along with the open-pit gold mining.

This place, next to the Portas de Ródão Natural Monument, is called Conhal, where you can see magnificent landscapes and where treasures of knowledge and beauty are discovered.

The Caminhos de Santiago are a strong historical heritage since the beginning of Christianity, where pilgrims and travelers crossed, seeking divine and physical protections.

This is the queen stage of the Order of Hospitallers, leaving at its headquarters in Flor da Rosa (Crato) at the Fortaleza Monastery, headquarters of this religious and military order that was so important in the settlement and pacification of these lands.

Along the way you can see the wide fields, marked by spots of montado, olive groves and some scattered eucliptals.

What truly marks the landscape, however, is the granite, which in the outcrops, in large blocks, islands of stones, in monuments and along the rural walls, shows the geological component and arduous and passionate landscape of this Alto Alentejo.

Man has always needed water for his survival, just like the other living things. However, access to quality water was not always easy.

Since populations began to be concentrated in Towns and Cities, access to quality water and purity has become very complicated by the increasing forms of contamination that flows have suffered due to heavy human and animal pressure in urban environments.

The farms from which springs sprouted were usually deprived and their owners guarded and severely restricted access to this essential good.

Only the late eighteenth century and especially the nineteenth century, after the beginning of the Liberal Regime, saw the water come to the population through many and varied points of public consumption: springs, fountains, fountains, fountains, spouts, drinking fountains, tanks, laundries. and other publicly accessible water points.

This is the route that shows all this heritage of Nisa.

The Caminhos de Santiago are a strong historical heritage since the beginning of Christianity, where pilgrims and travelers crossed, seeking divine and physical protections.

We entered the Knights Templar Territory that settled in Alpalhão, as well as throughout the territory of Nisa. Coming from France, they even left their local names to identify their origin: Nisa-Nice, Montalvão-Montalban, Tolosa-Toulose, ...

Although in the Alentejo, we started to have typical scenarios of the lower border, in terms of geomorphology, vegetation, buildings and even the accent of local populations.

The heritage is immense and the landscapes sublime, the same that delighted travelers throughout the ages.