Things To Do in Estremoz

With enough promenading soldiers to man a garrison, the open quadrangle in the center of the Lower Town is called the Rossio Marquês de Pombal. The Town Hall, with its twin bell towers, opens onto this square. It has a grand stairway whose walls are lined with antique blue-and-white tiles, depicting hunting, pastoral, and historical scenes.

In the 16th-century Igreja de Santa Maria (Church of St. Mary), you'll see pictures by Portuguese primitive painters. The church formed part of the ancient fortress. It is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9:30am to noon and 3 to 5pm. Admission is free.

Another church worth a stop is .6km (less than a half mile) south of the town on the road to Bencatel. The Igreja de Nossa Senhora dos Mártires (Church of Our Lady of the Martyrs) has beautiful tiles and an entrance marked by a Manueline arch. Dating from 1844, the church has a nave chevet after the French Gothic style of architecture.

The town's most famous product is a type of traditional earthenware water jug. Known as a moringue, it has two spouts, one handle, and sometimes a decorative crest that's stamped into the wet clay before it's fired. At least half a dozen street merchants sell the jugs in the town's main square, Rossio Marquês de Pombal. Stylish reminders of Portugal's agrarian past, they're associated with love and marriage. (Housewives traditionally carried water in them to workers in the fields.) Some are simple; others are glazed in bright colors.

At Artesanato, Avenida de São António (no phone), you'll find hundreds of terra-cotta figurines, another of the town's specialties. Each represents an archetype from the Alentejo workforce, and the designs include artfully naive depictions of washerwomen, sausage makers, carpenters, priests, and broom makers. Artesanato also sells some of the region's other handicrafts, including metalwork, woodcarvings, and weavings.