Azueira

In the hills of the Mafra municipality, a short way inland from the coast, the parish of Azueira keeps the rural face of the Lisbon district: villages of the barrocal’s northern edge, organic farms open to visitors, and pine woods running towards the great walls of the Tapada.

A name of the Moorish hills

The village’s name is usually given as Arabic, a memory of the Moorish period of these hills, and its territory holds churches and places of the parish’s old rural life — among them the hillside church of São Pedro de Grilhões and the hamlet of Livramento. Since 2013 the parish has been joined with Sobral da Abelheira in a union of the Mafra municipality, and the farmland around works a little of everything the West grows: vegetables, orchards, vines and the pastures of smallholdings.

Farms, pines and the lines of Torres

The organic farms of the parish welcome visitors for tours and tastings of their produce, and the country lanes run between pines and cultivated fields towards the hills of the Torres Vedras borderlands — the same ridges that carried the capital’s defensive lines in the Napoleonic invasions. The great monument town of Torres Vedras stands to the north, the royal convent and hunting park of Mafra a short drive south, and the Parque Natural de Sintra-Cascais completes the circuit on the coast side.

What to see

• The organic farms and their tastings
• The church of São Pedro de Grilhões
• The hamlet and viewpoints of Livramento
• The pine woods towards the Tapada
• The ridges of the old Torres Vedras lines

Practical information

Azueira lies in the Mafra municipality, in the Lisbon district, on the inland roads of the Oeste. Farm visits are arranged ahead: bring comfortable shoes, and check the official websites before setting out.

Image credit: Arredores do Livramento – Portugal by Vitor Oliveira — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.