Description Serpa

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Serpa is a Portuguese city belonging to the District of Beja, region of Alentejo and sub-region of Baixo Alentejo, with about 14 000 inhabitants.

It is the seat of one of the most extensive municipalities in Portugal, with 1,110.86 km² in area and 19 674 inhabitants (2011), subdivided into 5 parishes. The municipality is limited to the north by the municipality of Vidigueira, to the northeast by Moura, to the east by Spain, to the south by Mértola and to the west by Beja.

On an elevation a few kilometers from the left bank of the Guadiana, the great river in the south of Portugal, rises the town of Serpa, a place name that dates back to the Roman domain, about 2,000 years ago.

The first impression that the visitor has of Serpa is the sight of the magnificent walls of the Castle where the Portas de Moura and the Beja walls are torn, the only survivors of the 5 primitive doors. Included in the wall on the east side is the vast manor of the counts of Ficalho, also standing out the altered aqueduct in Italian arcade that extends to the end of the south wall.

Within the village, the layout of the streets, which open onto large squares where traditional, erudite and religious architecture coexists, gives Serpa a very unique character that makes the walk delightful.

The highest part of the hill corresponds to the primitive, medieval, Moorish and Christian urban nucleus. Here you will find the Church of Santa Maria, which remains from the castle's old keep, the Clock Tower and the Archeology Museum. The Clock Museum, located in the old Mosteirinho convent, is also the only one of its kind in the Iberian Peninsula.

After visiting Serpa, be sure to go to Pousada de S. Gens, where you will enjoy the immense panorama of the plain as far as the eye can see punctuated by the vast olive groves that surround Serpa. Outside the doors, the Santo António Convent, built in the 19th century, deserves a visit. XV and some small temples of popular devotion: Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe and, on the road to Beja, S. Sebastião, this century. XVI, where Manueline and Mudejar styles are married, witnessing the complement of the two cultures that lived in the region.

About 10 km to the south, with the Guadiana River on the left, the Parque Natural do Guadiana, with a rich natural heritage, offers some of the most beautiful landscapes of southern Portugal.