Hidden Gems

Alcoutim is a small town in the far north-east of the Algarve, on the bank of the Guadiana and directly opposite the Andalusian village of Sanlúcar de Guadiana. It grew up after the Treaty of Alcanizes (1297) made the river a border: King Dinis had the castle built around 1304, the year of the town charter, on a hill between the Guadiana and the Cadavais stream. In 1371 the kings of Portugal and Castile signed the Peace of Alcoutim here. From the castle, which houses the archaeology museum, winding streets lead down to the quay, in much the same spot as its medieval predecessor. Beside it, on a small rise, stands the parish church of São Salvador, from the first half of the 14th century. The Pego Fundo river beach is about 500 metres from the centre, and 1 km from town, above the river, are the ruins of Castelo Velho, an Islamic fort founded in the 8th or 9th century. The river still links the two banks. A boat crosses to Sanlúcar, and the zipline over the Guadiana starts on the Spanish side and lands in Alcoutim: 720 metres in under a minute.

At the edge of the hamlet of Álamo, about 11 km south of Alcoutim, stands a Roman dam. It sits in the Fornalha gully, a tributary of the Guadiana. It is a straight wall about 40 metres long, more than 8 metres high and 2.8 metres thick, built of mortared greywacke blocks laid in horizontal courses. Seven buttresses are visible on the south side. It is thought to have held around 2,100 cubic metres of water in a reservoir some 90 metres long. The archaeologist Estácio da Veiga identified and recorded it in the late 19th century, and it probably supplied the Roman villa of Álamo nearby. It has been a listed monument since 1992.

Alcoutim Castle was built on the orders of King Dinis around 1304, when the Guadiana became the border with Castile. It stands on a hill between the river and the Cadavais stream, and it was in this town that the Iberian kings signed the Peace of Alcoutim in 1371. From the wall walk you look out over the Guadiana to Sanlúcar on the far bank. On the north side a viewing scope points at Castelo Velho, the Islamic fort 1 km outside town. Inside is the archaeology museum, opened in 2000, with an exhibition running from the Neolithic to the 20th century. The old powder magazine holds 'Jogos Intemporais': 39 game boards carved into slabs of schist and 18 gaming pieces, all found at Castelo Velho. It is the largest set of Islamic-period games from a single archaeological site in Portugal.

Guerreiros do Rio is a riverside village on the Guadiana, about 8 km south of Alcoutim. Life here has always faced the river: for part of the 20th century it was a hub for smuggling with Spain, mostly dried fruit and other foodstuffs, wine and textiles. The village is home to the Museu do Rio, a branch of Alcoutim's municipal museum. It began in 1994 with an exhibition in the old village primary school, was extended from 2003 and reopened in September 2006 with the exhibition 'Olhar o Guadiana por dentro'. It tells the river's story: navigation and ore transport, traditional fishing, smuggling and the villages along the banks. Since 2008 it has also shown 'Barcos Tradicionais do Baixo Guadiana', scale models of the boats that worked the river until the mid-1960s, built by José Murta Pereira, who was born in the village. The GR15 Rota do Guadiana trail passes through on its stretch between Álamo and Alcoutim.

Pereiro is a village in the north-eastern Algarve, inland within the municipality of Alcoutim, and now shares a parish with the town itself. Its parish church of São Marcos is documented from the first half of the 16th century. Inside is one of the most interesting sets of altarpieces in this corner of the Algarve, above all the altarpiece of souls, the only Mannerist example to survive in the area. The village also has the Casa do Ferreiro, a branch of Alcoutim's municipal museum that opened in 2011 in the old blacksmith's workshop, shut for more than forty years before that. It shows farm tools, household ironwork and the rings made from horseshoe nails that young men gave their sweethearts, along with a documentary of local memories. Pereiro is the start of the PR4 Caminhos da Fonte, a walk of about 10 km past the Pereiro reservoir, holm oak groves and the hamlet of Fonte Zambujo.

Alcoutim's river beach is called Pego Fundo and, contrary to what many assume, it is not on the Guadiana. It sits on the Cadavais stream, close to where it flows into the river, about 500 metres from the town centre. There is a sandy beach, a bar, toilets, showers and parking, with access adapted for people with reduced mobility. You will also find a covered picnic area with wooden tables and a volleyball court. Lifeguards are on duty throughout the bathing season and there is a first-aid post. The water comes from the Alcoutim reservoir, is renewed daily and reaches around 28 °C in summer, a good deal warmer than the sea. In 2003 it was the only river beach in Portugal to fly the Blue Flag.

In 1876 the Guadiana flooded to a height never seen before and uncovered ruins nobody knew were there. The archaeologist Estácio da Veiga excavated them and presented them as an important Roman villa. They lie on the right bank of the river, beside the hamlet of Montinho das Laranjeiras, about 6 km south of Alcoutim. The site was founded in the 1st century BC and stayed in use until the end of the Islamic period. Three phases are visible. From Roman times there is the pars fructuaria, a six-room building where farm produce was processed and stored. Between the late 6th and early 7th century a cross-shaped church was built, Byzantine in influence, with schist walls, a mosaic floor and a baptistery with a small pool. The Islamic period left rectangular houses arranged around a courtyard. Being on the river made it easy to trade with merchants sailing up the Guadiana to Mértola. The council restored the site and opened it in September 2005, with a visitor path, information panels and a wooden observation tower.

Vaqueiros is the main village of a parish in the interior of Alcoutim municipality with 333 residents (2021 census) across almost 144 square kilometres. In 1950 more than 2,200 lived here. The Odeleite stream runs about 4 km south of the village. The parish council points visitors to the parish church, the chapel of São Bento in Alcaria Queimada, the Fonte da Parra spring with its picnic area and walking path, and three small reservoirs: Vaqueiros, Pão Duro and Preguiças. The area has a long mining history. Beside the Foupana stream, the Cova dos Mouros mine was worked from the Copper Age and again in the 19th century, and in 1999 a theme park was set up there with reconstructed dwellings and tools.