Top 15 Natural Monuments around Santiago Do Escoural

Cromeleque dos Almendres, located near Évora, is the largest and most important megalithic monument in the Iberian Peninsula. Built between the late 6th and 3rd millennium BC, it is about 2000 years older than Stonehenge. VisitEvora +3 This "Portuguese Stonehenge" is composed of about 95 granite monoliths (menhirs) arranged in circles and ellipses on a gentle slope in the Serra do Monfurado. VisitEvora +1

The Cromeleque dos Almendres, located in Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe, Évora, is the most important megalithic monument on the Iberian Peninsula and one of the largest in Europe. Composed of about 95 stone monoliths (menhirs) arranged in concentric circles, this enclosure is about 2,000 years older than the famous Stonehenge. 👍🥾

Giraldo Castle, or Geraldo Castle, is located in Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe, in the current parish of Nossa Senhora da Tourega and Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe, in the Municipality of Évora, District of Évora, in Portugal. It is a castro, a proto-historic fortified structure with origins in the Bronze Age or even the Chalcolithic, but with traces of later occupations. It has a subcircular plan and an outer perimeter of 114 meters. The wall that has survived to the present day probably belonged to a period of medieval occupation. Sources from the 15th century refer to the fortification, associating it with the presence of Geraldo Sem Pavor, a warrior who conquered Évora from the Muslims in 1165. It is currently in the process of being classified.

The site in Nossa Senhora da Tourega e Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe has been continuously occupied since 3000 B.C. and 1000 A.D. It was founded on a castro fortified proto-historic structure, with its origin in the Bronze Age, Chalcolithic, with vestiges from older settlements. During the Middle Ages it was sporadically re-occupied and reconstructed. Records from the 15th century indicate that the castle was associated with Giraldo Sem Pavor, a warrior who conquered Évora from the Muslims in 1165. Today the site is being analyzed for classification.

Great Dolmen of Zambujeiro (Portuguese: Anta Grande do Zambujeiro) is a megalithic monument located in Nossa Senhora da Tourega, near Valverde, in the municipality of Évora, considered one of the biggest such structures in the Iberian Peninsula.

Anta Grande do Zambujeiro, also known as Anta Grande do Zambujeiro de Valverde, is a megalithic dolmen-type monument near Valverde, Évora, Alentejo, Portugal, one of the largest in the Iberian Peninsula. A large number of archaeological finds found during the excavations are housed in the Évora Museum. Anta Grande do Zambujeiro was declared a National Monument in 1971 by decree law 516/71 of 22 November.

The Montado is an agrosilvopastoral system explored at several levels – trees, bushes and herbs – according to the potential of each region. On the tree level it can be made up of oaks like cork oak (Quercus suber), holm oak (Q. rotundifolia) and less frequently pyrene oak (Q. pyrenaica) and portuguese oak (Q. faginea), in pure or mixed populations with variable densities. The ground cover is occupied by pastures used by cattle or is used for dry land crops on a rotation system. The natural pastures can be occupied by shrubs, in variable proportions. Humans are an integral and fundamental part of this ecosystem. It was through our clearing action that the montados were created, ever since we started intervening on our natural surroundings. Human management is necessary, in a more or less intensive way, in order to maintain the montado. Without this intervention, the system evolves, naturally to form a dense forest, where people have more difficulty obtaining resources. The way this process of transformation of the Mediterranean forest developed influenced the structure of the system as it presents today. Some older practices still persist, now without context, making more difficult the adaptation of the system to the new ways of agrarian production. Other ways emerged, some well adapted to the system, other causing more or less serious disturbances. The montado is a system for using the soil developed on a physical background that involves climate, pedological and geomorphological factors with specific characteristics. It is why this ecosystem is restricted to such a limited area, when compared to other ecosystems in our planet.

Typical Alentejo farm. Private property. Not open to visitors...