VIDIGUEIRA
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2,800.
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Piscinas Municipais
(Tel: 284 434 492 ). -
2nd Sat of
month.
Fine wines from Vidigueira make it a leading centre of wine production in the
Alentejo. Less well known is the fact that the explorer Vasco da Gama was Conde
de Vidigueira. His remains, now in the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, lay from
1539 to 1898 in the Convento do Carmo, now private property. A mediocre statue
of the town’s most famous son stands in the flowery square named after him. The
main features of this unpretentious little town are a Misericórdia church dated 1620, and a clocktower from Vasco da Gama’s
time.
One of Portugal’s most notable Roman sites, São Cucufate ,
named after a later monastery, lies 4 km (2 miles) west. The vaulting
belonged to a 4th-century villa, but excavations have revealed the baths of
a 2nd-century house, whose wine presses, reservoir and temple indicate a
sumptuous Roman residence.
The vineyards around Vidigueira caught in the evening light
