Alpiarça

On the left bank of the Tagus, between the river’s backwaters and the vineyards of the Lezíria, Alpiarça is a small wine town with an unusual treasure: the Casa dos Patudos, the house built for the republican statesman José Relvas and kept as a museum, one of the most complete glimpses of a Portuguese private world of the early twentieth century.

The house of José Relvas

Relvas, a leading figure of the republican generation who briefly led the government after the fall of the monarchy, commissioned the architect Raul Lino to build his country house on the family’s Patudos farm; it rose in the first years of the twentieth century in Lino’s revivalist Portuguese style, with its collections of painting, tiles and decorative arts installed around it. Kept as a municipal museum, the house opens its rooms — and, since its restoration, the more intimate quarters — as a portrait of the man and his era.

Vineyards, river marshes and old roads

The town lives from the vine and the plain: the wine country of the Tejo region surrounds the municipality, with estate visits and tastings in the neighbouring wine towns of Cartaxo and Almeirim, and the wetlands of the great river run along the municipal edge. Prehistoric and Roman remains dot the plateau above the river, on roads that led towards Mérida in Roman times. The cathedral terraces of Santarém rise downstream, and the marsh country of Benavente begins to the south.

What to see

• The Casa dos Patudos museum-house and its collections
• The vineyards and wine estates of the Tejo region
• The wetlands and backwaters of the Tagus
• The prehistoric and Roman sites of the plateau
• The agricultural fair grounds of the town

Practical information

Alpiarça lies in the Santarém district, on the left bank of the Tagus, on the road between Santarém and Almeirim. The museum closes at midday: check the official websites before setting out.

Image credit: Alpiarça Casa dos Patudos by GualdimG — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.