West of Evora is an area known as the 'marble towns' where there are many large marble quarries and it was there that we headed. On the pleasant journey to Estramoz, we passed the fortified town of Evoramonte that is visible from Evora. It is in a commanding position and the view of its walls and tall castle are very impressive as one approaches. We decided not to stop as we had a full day and we likewise decided to by-pass Estramoz, the first of the marble towns, and head for Borba. This is a much smaller town and has the added attraction of having a well respected wine cooperative. We stopped and had a very brief tasting (I was driving) and purchased 6 bottles of wine and a 5 litre box of red. We bought a variety of red and white and different qualities and the whole lot came to €29 (approx. £21) with the 5 litre box (€5.26) costing less than the best bottle of wine (€5.54)!
Borba was not very noteworthy, although it was interesting to see that even the most humble of houses had a marble doorstep, door and window surrounds and often a marble balcony. I suspect that marble was also much in evidence inside given that it used to be such a cheap material in the area. The quarries outside Borba were very impressive, deep and with huge blocks of marble waiting to be extracted. The roads were also lined with factories cutting the marble and producing finished building materials in a variety of coloured and veined marble.
We didn't stop in the next marble town of Vila Vicosa although we wished that we had stopped there rather than Borba. The town was much prettier, with the streets lined with orange trees and with a much cleaner and more spacious feel to it. We had decided that we should have time to visit a Roman site that we knew nothing about. 'Ruinas Romanas de Sao Cucufate' was marked clearly on our map, just off our route down the IP2 to Beja. We got there just after 17:30 to find that there was a 'Closed' sign on the door and the opening times showed that it closed at 17:00. From the little that we could see, the site looked really interesting with at least one building still standing to many metres in height. We decided to park in the car park over night and be at the door as soon as the site opened at 09:00.
Photos: Evoramonte fortified town and castle; A building in Borba showing the use of marble; A marble sculptured head on the outskirts of Borba with one on the many marble quarries evident in the background; Borba marble quarry – for scale note the steps down the marble quarry face.
Borba was not very noteworthy, although it was interesting to see that even the most humble of houses had a marble doorstep, door and window surrounds and often a marble balcony. I suspect that marble was also much in evidence inside given that it used to be such a cheap material in the area. The quarries outside Borba were very impressive, deep and with huge blocks of marble waiting to be extracted. The roads were also lined with factories cutting the marble and producing finished building materials in a variety of coloured and veined marble.
We didn't stop in the next marble town of Vila Vicosa although we wished that we had stopped there rather than Borba. The town was much prettier, with the streets lined with orange trees and with a much cleaner and more spacious feel to it. We had decided that we should have time to visit a Roman site that we knew nothing about. 'Ruinas Romanas de Sao Cucufate' was marked clearly on our map, just off our route down the IP2 to Beja. We got there just after 17:30 to find that there was a 'Closed' sign on the door and the opening times showed that it closed at 17:00. From the little that we could see, the site looked really interesting with at least one building still standing to many metres in height. We decided to park in the car park over night and be at the door as soon as the site opened at 09:00.
Photos: Evoramonte fortified town and castle; A building in Borba showing the use of marble; A marble sculptured head on the outskirts of Borba with one on the many marble quarries evident in the background; Borba marble quarry – for scale note the steps down the marble quarry face.
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