Thursday 29th October 2015 – Beja, Portugal

Time to move on to a town stop. We headed north just inland from the coast before turning north-east at Odemira. Our route took us through cork oak territory with large areas of scattered trees and the occasional denuded tree on the roadside. Every nine years the cork bark is stripped from the main trunk of the tree and, on larger trees, up some of the branches, leaving a bright reddish-brown trunk. The trees often have a number painted on them indicating the year that the bark was removed, so those from this year’s harvest have a 5 on them. The colour of the newly stripped trees soon dulls as the bark begins to regenerate and after nine years it is ready to be harvested again. We saw many farms with huge piles of neatly stacked bark waiting for processing.

Our objective was Beja but we took a round-a-bout route because I had spotted on the map a Roman villa site, the Ruinas Romanas de Sao Cucufate, a few kilometres north of the town. When we arrived at lunch time it was closed but we both realised that we had been to the site before. Back in 2008 on our 14 month tour of Europe we called in here to find it closed when it should have been open, stayed overnight in the car park and it didn’t open the next day either. So although we had visited the site, we hadn’t actually seen it. There had been no indication as to why it was closed in 2008, the signs suggested that it should have been open, so it was with some trepidation that we awaited the 14:00 opening time. Sure enough, just before two o’clock two staff arrived and we were able to visit. And it was well worth the seven year wait. This was a villa developed in three phases from a small villa in 1^st century AD, replaced by a larger villa in the middle of the 2^nd century which, in turn, was demolished and replaced by a huge villa in the late 2^nd century. This must have been owned by someone of significant wealth who wanted to display his wealth with a prestigious building. Unlike most Roman villa ruins, this one has survived to considerable height. Abandoned in the late 5^th century it managed to escape being used as a quarry until it was converted into a monastery in the Late Middle Age. After another period of disuse, it was restored in 1255, again as a monastery, leaving the majority of the Roman building in its original form. It is a really interesting site and the English brochure provided is very informative – well worth a visit.

We drove on to the municipal campsite at Beja, situated in the centre just a five minute walk from the historic centre. We were glad that we didn’t have one of those enormous motorhomes as we negotiated the tight entrance and found ourselves in a strange walled site with totally random pitches – park wherever you like! However the toilet block was clean, lots of hot water and for less than €7 a night, including electricity, it was a bargain.

We did a tour of the sites using a map provided by the campsite and admired the castle that had already been heavily restored but was undergoing more restoration. We found a restaurant in the old town and had a very good meal with a bottle of the local red.

Photos: Cork bark awaiting collection; Overview of Sao Cucufate with the Roman temple in the foreground; The huge Roman grain store converted into a church for the monastery and containing 16^th century paintings; Because the ruins have been preserved to such a height, visitors can climb to the top floor for a view over the site – to the left was an open terrace overlooking a large pool to the view beyond; This small bakery in Beja had been converted into a very small bar – standing room only; Beja castle.