Sprawled on a green slope of the Serra de São Mamede, this pretty spa town
enjoyed by the Romans has worn well. It is fringed by modern development but the
lower town, around Praça Dom Pedro V, retains its Baroque church of Santa Maria , the 18th-century town hall and pillory, and handsome
mansions from the same era. In the Largo Frederico Laranjo is one of several
sources of the town’s curative waters: the Fonte da Vila , a
carved stone fountain with a pillared canopy. Just above is the maze-like Judiaria , where small white houses sprout vivid pots of
geraniums. Its cobbled alleys conceal a 13th-century synagogue 
and are lined with fine Gothic doorways. The town’s oldest chapel, the
13th-century Salvador do Mundo  on the Estrada de
Circunvalação, has a much admired Flight into Egypt  by an
un-known 18th-century artist.

In the upper town, the tiny Nossa Senhora da Alegria  offers a
feast of 17th-century polychrome floral tiles. It stands within the walls of the
castle  that gave the town its name. This was rebuilt in
1310 by King Dinis, who negotiated here to marry Isabel of Aragon. Much of the
castle was lost in an explosion in 1705.