Alenquer

Where the plains of the Ribatejo begin to rise into the hills of the Oeste, the town of Alenquer climbs a valley of vineyards under its old castle walls. It is a wine town of the Lisbon region and a town of books: the great humanist Damião de Góis was born here, and its streets still carry the shape of a medieval county seat.

The humanist’s town

Alenquer was a royal town from the first kings of Portugal, its castle guarding the road between Lisbon and the north, and it kept a courtly reputation through the Middle Ages. Its most famous son, Damião de Góis, was born here at the opening of the sixteenth century: a friend of Erasmus and chronicler of the age, he later fell foul of the Inquisition, and the town keeps his tomb and a museum of his life and of the Inquisition’s victims in the church of Santa Maria da Várzea.

Vines, castles and old roads

The vine is the town’s oldest economy, and its slopes fall within the Alenquer wine district of the Lisbon region, where family estates pour Castelão, Touriga Nacional and Arinto; the region’s wine museum occupies an old public granary in the town. Castle walls crown the hill above the roofs, and the roads run out to the ridges of the Cadaval and Montejunto to the north and the Lines-of-Torres country of Torres Vedras to the south-west.

What to see

• The castle ruins above the town
• The Museu Damião de Góis in the church of Santa Maria da Várzea
• The DOC vineyards and the wine museum
• The Manueline portal of the convent of São Francisco
• The viewpoint over the valley from the upper town

Practical information

Alenquer lies in the Lisbon district, in the Oeste region, on the road between Torres Vedras and the Tagus plain. Tastings are best arranged ahead: wear good shoes for the castle hill, and check the official websites before setting out.

Image credit: Alenquer vista geral by SoAres — public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.