Where to stay

L’And Vineyards This sleek lakeside retreat has viticulture at its heart – quite literally, with the lobby overlooking steel vats of wine, and grape- infused Caudalie treatments in the moodily lit spa. Its low-slung Sky View suites (so-called as their retractable ceilings allow guests to stargaze in bed) feature private terraces, plunge pools and wood-burning firepits, perfect for sunset wine imbibing. Their restaurant, Mapa, serves up stylish modern plates. Suites from £231. Herdade das Valadas Estrada Nacional 4, Apartado 122, Montemor-o-Novo, 00 351 266 242400, l-and.com

M’Ar De Ar Aqueduto A 16th-century palace reborn as an elegant boutique hotel. Among grand vaulted ceilings and stone staircases, you’ll find a cocktail bar, spa and two restaurants – one casual, one more of a formal, tasting-menu affair – while the courtyard holds a sizeable pool. Doubles from £116. Rua Cândido dos Reis 72, Évora, 00 351 266 740700, mardearhotels.com

Quinta do Santo Think of this renovated farmhouse as a next-level restaurant with rooms. Cenoura-Brava Restaurant serves an exceptional tasting menu comprising six or nine ‘moments’ that might move from razor clam, citrus and dill through to São Tomé chocolate, peanuts and tonka bean. Fully sated, it’s just stumbling distance to bed, in one of four airy, white suites in the main building or a private villa that sleeps four. Suites from £195. Six-course tasting menu from £76 with wine pairing from £30. 7005-839 Évora, 00 351 266 788200, cenoura-brava.com

Vila Galé Évora Part of a respected Portuguese chain, this 185-room hotel is handily located right outside the city’s Roman walls. Wellness and leisure facilities are a strong suit, including two swimming pools, state-of-the-art gym and full-service spa. Doubles from £109. Avenida Túlio Espanca, Évora, 00 351 266 758100, vilagale.com

Travel Information

Translating as ‘beyond the Tagus river’, Alentejo is a south-central region of Portugal. Évora, 128km east of Lisbon, is the provincial capital. Flight time from London to Lisbon is 2hr 45min. From there, coaches to Évora leave from Sete Rios station and trains from Oriente or Entrecampos, all taking around 90 minutes. A rental car is useful in rural Alentejo, especially to reach vineyards and smaller towns. Currency is the Euro and time zone is the same as the UK.

GETTING THERE
British Airways offer daily flights from London Heathrow to Lisbon. ba.com
Easyjet fly from London Gatwick and regional airports. easyjet.com

RESOURCES
Visit Évora provide a comprehensive guide to the city. visitevora.net

Turismo do Alentejo have further information on what to see in the wider region and suggested sightseeing itineraries. visitalentejo.pt

Where to eat

Prices are per person for a three-course meal with wine, unless stated

Cavalariça Becoming a byword for sophisticated, contemporary Portuguese dining, the Cavalariça Group land their Évora outpost – converted stables within a pretty Moorish courtyard – following openings in Lisbon and Comporta. Executive chef Bruno Caseiro draws on stints in overseas kitchens for dishes such as seasonal vegetable spring rolls with almond hoisin and a South American-inflected seaweed chimichurri with lamb empanadas. From £51. Palácio dos Duques de Cadaval, Rua Augusto Filipe Simões 9, Évora, 00 351 266 248775, cavalarica.com

Enoteca Cartuxa On a cobbled lane steps from the Roman Temple, this cosy canteen is a platform for award-winning wines and olive oils from non-profit Eugénio de Almeida Foundation – meaning the products not only taste divine but support local social and cultural causes. While sampling Portuguese varietals, graze on tapas and cheese platters or fill your boots with regional favourites like cod loin on puréed chickpeas followed by olive oil pudding. From £50. Rua Vasco da Gama 15, Évora, 00 351 266 748348, cartuxa.pt

Herdade do Esporão Restaurant Fine dining on one of Alentejo’s most famous wine estates. Supplied by extensive organic kitchen gardens and a formidable fermentation lab, the restaurant holds a Green Michelin star for its sustainable, terroir-driven ethos. Five-course tasting menu £76, with optional wine pairing from £25. Edifício Enoturismo, Herdade do Esporão, 00 351 266 509280, esporao.com

Mercearia Gadanha Equal parts restaurant, delicatessen and wine merchant, rising star Michele Marques reimagines classic Alentejan flavours (alongside a few nods to her Brazilian roots) in picture-perfect small plates that sing with seasonal herbs and surprising textures. Don’t miss the
goats’ cheese au gratin with pickled pear and thyme ice cream. The best seat in the house is a cute table for two tucked inside the stone hearth. From £50. Largo dos Dragões de Olivença 84A, Estremoz, 00 351 268 333262, merceariagadanha.pt

O Moinho do Cu Torto Fill up on hearty local recipes like migas soaked breadcrumbs and açorda broth at this deeply authentic spot. A lovingly restored blue and white windmill across the courtyard is a reminder of the property’s past as a miller’s home, and crusty loaves of pão Alentejano are still baked in their ancient brick oven. Mains from £10. Rua de Santo André 2A, Évora, 00 351 266 771 060

Pastelaria Conventual Pao de Rala Sweet-tooths assemble here: this pint- sized Portuguese pastelaria arguably serves the city’s finest doces conventuais. To curb the post-patisserie sugar slump, order um café to sip alongside your choice of egg yolk and almond confection. Cakes from £2. Rua de Cicioso 47, Évora, 00 351 266 707778

República da Empada Locals grab pastéis de toucinho and empadas – two of Arraiolos’ most emblematic snacking options – at this friendly café located on the medieval town square. Pastries from £1. Praça do Município 6, Arraiolos, 00 351 937 295465

Food Glossary

Açorda

A broth of coriander and garlic poured over stale bread and then served with eggs

Carne de porco à Alentejana

Black pork and clams stewed in white wine

Cozido de grão

Chickpea stew featuring pork or lamb

Doces conventuais

Meaning ‘convent sweets’; the collective name for sweet, egg-based recipes that originated in Portuguese nunneries

Encharcada de ovos

A dessert made from boiled, strained and caramelised egg yolks

Ensopado de borrego

Slow-cooked lamb stew, usually poured over stale bread

Farinheira

A smoked sausage of lard, flour and paprika

Fios de ovos

Egg yolks sieved into thin strands and boiled in sugar syrup

Migas

Breadcrumbs soaked in olive oil, herbs, spices and garlic, sometimes mixed with pork or bacon. Similar to stuffing but a wetter consistencyand served as a main dish

Pão de rala

A marzipan-esque almond dough that has a pumpkin jam centre

Porco preto

Native breed of Iberian black pig

Queijadas de requeijão

Sweetened sheeps’ cheese tartlets

Queijinhos de céu

Rounds of muslin-wrapped, marzipan-like almond dough, filled with egg custard

Sopa

Soup; traditional regional flavours include cação (dogfish) and beldroegas (purslane)

Sericaia

A soufflé-like, cinnamon-spiced egg pudding, normally drenched in stewed Elvas plums

Vinho de talha

Wines fermented in clay pots

Food and Travel Review

Sinfully sweet, wickedly sticky, bewitched to a decadent yellow-gold – who’d have guessed the confections filling Évora’s pastry shops were created by nuns? After starching their habits with egg whites, local convents started putting all those leftover yolks to good use in the 15th century, combining them with sugar shipped in from Brazil, plus locally abundant sheep’s milk and almonds, to make all manner of doces conventuais (‘convent sweets’). They’ve given us queijadas de requeijão, little cheesecakes encased inside crisp pastry shells; the soufflé-like, syrup-drenched sericaia; and boiled, candied shreds of egg yolks called encharcada de ovos. Pão de rala and queijinhos do céu are, respectively, shaped like round loaves of bread and cheese, but it’s just a trick of the eye – both are moulded out of a fudgy marzipan dough. Happily, these recipes spread beyond the local nunneries and you can savour them today in the town’s tiny, azulejo-tiled cafés like Pastelaria Conventual Pão de Rala.

That’s not to say Évora’s cuisine is indulgent by nature. Far from it, in fact. This is the provincial capital of Alentejo, a hard-working rural heartland historically known as the bread basket of Portugal. Substantial stews and soups – soaked up with sourdough loaves liberally seasoned with wild herbs and garlic – have long fortified its farm workers. This agricultural identity may not be obvious in the city’s architecture, ranging from baroque fountains and chapels to medieval cloisters, but head outside the Old Town walls and sun- drenched countryside soon takes over: olive groves and vineyards, cork-oak forest and rippling plains – all of it thriving in the warm climate. Whitewashed villages cling to hilltops like icing-sugar dustings, many of them associated with a particular heritage craft, whether it’s loom weaving in Arraiolos, Estremoz’s hand-painted clay dolls or the intricately patterned pottery of São Pedro do Corval. But, mostly, Alentejo consists of wide-open space; a tapestry of green and ochre that unfurls from the Tagus river to the Spanish border.

‘The cork tree is the soul of Alentejo,’ says Micaela Amorim, sales manager at Pepe Aromas, a family-run farm 20 minutes north of Évora city. ‘Together with the holm oaks, they make up our typical Montado landscape.’ This Unesco-protected, low-density woodland is one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems, and Portuguese law forbids chopping down any cork oak, alive or dead, without special permission. Instead, skilled corticeiros strip the trees’ spongy outer bark using short-handled, razor-sharp axes. It’s gruelling work, especially as harvest takes place in sweltering mid-summer.

All around, sections of trunk have been carved away to reveal scarlet underlayers. Micaela points to the white numbers painted on the surface. ‘These record the dates of the last harvesting – it’s done once every nine years to give the bark a chance to grow back,’ she says. This centuries-old process isn’t harmful to the trees but, rather, helps them grow healthily. Above the leafy canopy, in a sky as blue as those azulejo tiles, an eagle carves slow circles. Iberian black pigs snuffle across the forest floor, foraging for fallen acorns among the shrubs and dusty red- brown earth. ‘This diet is why our pork tastes superior; it’s sweeter and slightly nutty,’ Micaela explains.

Driving 30 minutes north-west to Estremoz, stalls at the Saturday farmers’ market are piled high with cured porco preto (black pork) products. Batateira is essentially Alentejo in a single bite: a cured sausage of pork fat and potato smoked over cork oak or holm oak branches. Another regional favourite is carne de porco à Alentejana, where cubes of the meat are marinated and slow-cooked with clams. The ingredient’s equally prolific at Mercearia Gadanha, the town’s Michelin-listed deli-restaurant: succulent, marbled tenderloins served with coriander-flecked, stuffing-like migas; cheeks stewed in wine; and prosciutto layered with thinly sliced bread, cod and egg in signature dish mil folhas de bacalhau e presunto. Given this area’s wheat-growing heritage, it’s no wonder bread and pork are paired so often.

Back in Évora, an early visit to O Moinho do Cu Torto finds owner Ludgero Salvador baking pão Alentejano. In the morning light, whirls of white flour cloud the small kitchen and the soft sourdough yields easily to his knuckles. ‘Bread is the base of our soups and stews,’ explains local guide Fernanda Gonçalves as the dough is shaped into rounds. ‘So it needs a thick crust and close crumb – not too many bubbles – otherwise it won’t hold together in those recipes.’ Ludgero deftly folds each round in half, which will cause a distinctive bulge or crown to spring up when it’s baked. ‘We call this pão de testa, which means “bread with a forehead”,’ Fernanda smiles.

The traditional brick oven is stoked with oak branches. To check it’s hot enough, Ludgero tosses in a handful of flour and sees if it instantly toasts. Satisfied, the loaves are loaded on to a wooden paddle and thrust inside. Many of them will be served in the adjoining restaurant, a former miller’s cottage, whose cosy, oak- beamed rooms have also housed a grocery store and tavern over the years. Shelves are still lined with paraphernalia from these previous incarnations: antique scales and apothecary bottles, farming equipment and sepia family photographs.

You could see this space as a microcosm for the city at large. Often referred to as a ‘living museum’, Évora is a palimpsest of architectural styles. The Roman Temple rubs shoulders with the country’s largest gothic cathedral, Cadaval Palace assimilates the ruins of a Moorish castle, and a 16th-century aqueduct soars above terracotta rooftops. Houses are pristinely whitewashed, their door and window frames edged with egg-yolk yellow or periwinkle blue.

Unlike Lisbon, most of which was razed by the 1755 earthquake, Évora’s structures have survived to cast visitors back into a distant past both glorious and brutal. Standing in Praça do Giraldo, the square’s back story is enough to make you shiver despite the Iberian sunshine: Giraldo was a ruthless soldier who liberated Évora from the Moors in 1167 by seducing the citadel commander’s daughter, promptly beheading the girl after she opened the city gates. Once the seat of Portuguese kings, the city is today somewhat unsung, tourists tending to flock to Alentejo’s coastline. But as European Capital of Culture for 2027, its historical riches are set to be thrust into the spotlight once more. Already, many of Alentejo’s old ways are enjoying a resurgence. Take Joana Garcia, who quit a career in law to become an artisan cheesemaker in her grandmother’s village of Vimieiro, just outside Estremoz. ‘Everything we do here at Monte da Vinha is slow, working by hand,’ she says. ‘And we use just three ingredients: raw sheep’s milk, salt and vegetable rennet.’ Only the temperature and maturation time vary, turning her buttery young cheeses harder and more piquant. Joana’s inspiration is Portugal’s most celebrated mountain cheese, Serra da Estrela, but her canny update was to downsize portions. ‘Families would buy a big, 1kg wheel for special occasions, but these days there are smaller households, and by making little cheeses, it’s something anyone can enjoy any time.’

At nearby vineyard Herdade do Mouchão, the harvest has just been completed and grape stomping is under way. Ruby-red juice flows from marble spouts into deep stone basins, sending up a sweet, musty aroma. Pulling on shorts and treading slowly through the cool, knee-deep squelchy soup while resident border collie Jock barks his support, is quite an experience. After a few laps of the vat, whiffs of garlic and rosemary drifting from a table tucked between the oak casks, is enough to entice anyone, purple-toed or not, to the table, where lunch consists of polvo a lagareiro – octopus and potatoes simply tray-roasted in olive oil and herbs. Mouchão’s crisp, citrusy Dom Rafael pairs perfectly with this classic dish. Next, Joana slices off the top of the cheese ready to spoon its creamy, almost liquid centre on to hunks of crusty bread. Glasses of garnet-hued, muscly Mouchão Tinto are poured out, brimming with black fruit notes plus hints of olive and mint.

Following the EM527 back towards Évora, a stop at Fitapreta reveals the resurgence of an even more ancient viticultural technique. Beneath the winery’s imposing 13th-century castle white grapes are being fermented and aged in large clay talha vessels, just as they were during Roman rule. The result is a wonderfully earthy, aromatic wine and a deeper amber hue. Alentejo’s produce is being put to entirely new uses too. Beyond its obvious function as bottle stoppers, cork is being used in everything from construction to NASA’s rocket boosters, prized for its elastic, fire-resistant, insulating and waterproof properties. In the words of Pepe Aromas’ Micaela. ‘Cork really is a wonder material.’

As for the Montado’s acorns, they’re no longer just fodder for pigs but increasingly in demand as a gluten-free flour, imparting a nuttier, darker bake. Pepe Aromas are also betting on prickly pears – which the United Nations hails as a climate-resilient wonder crop – turning the cactus fruit into jellies, vinegars and liqueurs and its seed oils into cosmetics and soaps.

In this rural setting, there’s nowhere to hide from the seasons. In every adeja (winery) and quinta (farm) you visit, water scarcity and biodiversity loss are phrases on growers’ lips. Mainova, a newcomer winery lying 32km north of the city, has installed bat hotels between the vines to support local wildlife. Their 20 hectares are planted with native grape varietals – including touriga nacional and baga for reds, verdelho and arinto for whites – that are better suited to the semi-arid climate, requiring less irrigation.

On the eastern edge of Évora District, Herdade do Esparão is a far bigger, more established operation but likewise it’s rejecting super-intensive olive tree farming in favour of slower-growing, less resource-guzzling methods. They have 15 delicious types of oil to show for it, from delicate Galega, with its aromas of apple and cinnamon, to the more bitter, complex vegetal notes and cut- grass scent of Olival dos Arrifes. Even the spent olive oil pits don’t go to waste – they’re used as biofuel.

The sustainable approach extends to Esporão’s farm-to-table wine bar – chef Christianna Baptista is a whizz at zero-waste recipes. Her bread noodles, for example, are made from leftover sourdough, doused in a crayfish shell bisque and flakes of pike perch, an invasive species in local rivers. ‘We Portuguese have a heritage of salting and curing to preserve food,’ she notes, ‘which shows how much you can do with a little.’ Christianna is heir to a long tradition of resourceful regional food ways. Like açorda, a farm table favourite that’s more assembly job than cookery: a bowl is lined with stale bread, then garlic, coriander, vinegar and salt are pounded into a thick paste and mixed with hot broth that is then poured over the bread, with an egg or two popped in for good measure. Fragrant and vividly green yet thick as a porridge, at first glance this humble dish doesn’t have much in common with dainty doces conventuais. Yet the nuns’ waste-not- want-not approach to those egg yolks was, on reflection, typically Alentejan. Take a handful of quality, local ingredients, make them last; it’s a philosophy that should resonate well beyond the wheat fields and cork forests of Alentejo.