Alentejo

The rural community of Castro Verde and the open spaces that characterize the interior Alentejo

 

Alentejo (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɐlẽˈtɛʒu]) is a south-central region of Portugal. The origin of its name, "Além-Tejo", literally translates to "Beyond the Tagus" or "Across the Tagus". The region is separated from the rest of Portugal by the Tagus river, and extends to the south where it borders the Algarve. Alentejo is a region known for its polyphonic singing groups, comparable to those found on Sardinia and Corsica.

Its main cities are Évora, Portalegre, Beja, Serpa and Sines.

Being a traditional region, it is also one of the more recent seven Regions of Portugal (NUTS II subdivisions). Today Lezíria do Tejo subregion, formerly belonging to Lisboa e Vale do Tejo region, is part of Alentejo NUTS II region.

 The expansive landscape of the rural Alentejo Region

History

The comarca of the Alentejo became the Alentejo Province, divided into upper (Alto Alentejo Province) and lower (Baixo Alentejo Province) designations. The modern region of the Alentejo was expropriated from the medieval provinces and historical territories of Estremadura Province (specifically the 1936 portions of the Ribatejo).

 The slightly rugged area in the interior

Climate

The climate of the region is typically very dry for a large part of the year with summer temperatures reaching up to 40 degrees Celsius and mild winters. Alentejo is one of the hottest places in Europe, as the South inland of Spain. In Alentejo, year temperature averages can be as high as 25 degrees, and 50 degrees can even be measured there (Amareleja, 05/07/2010). In most of the territory of Alentejo, the climate is Hot-Summer Mediterranean (Csa) but there is a part, in the South of Beja District that has Semi-Arid climate, where temperatures are really hot. In this part of Alentejo, the summers are even hotter than the summers in Almeria, a city in South Spain that has a Arid climate. Most of the yearly rainfall occurs in the late autumn to early spring. The biggest cities in Alentejo (Beja, Evora and Portalegre) are really hot in summer with a Hot-Summer mediterranean climate (Csa) but they are not the hottest cities, or villages in this hot Region. Some studies even show that Alentejo is not the hottest place in Portugal.

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Write by: AN - Sunday, October 12, 2014