This wealth makes Portalegre for the natural heritage and nature conservation, with considerable environmental quality.

The town of Portalegre is the capital of Portalegre district, with about 15,800 inhabitants. Soothes of a municipality with an area of ​​446.24 square kilometers, is divided into 10 parishes.

Portalegre was inhabited in prehistoric times and is of Roman origin, with beautiful houses from the Renaissance and the Baroque period.

It was John III which raised Portalegre to city status in May 23, 1550.

On July 18, 1835, Portalegre becomes the capital of the district.

For lovers of the human manifestations, Portalegre has several interesting buildings:

- Castle of Portalegre – located in the parish of the Cathedral, city and county Portalegre.  Great place from where was possible to defended  Alentejo front  Castile. It creates an interesting chromatic contrast with the dark and the walls white lime houses

- The Cathedral – This is a temple dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption, which  construction began May 14, 1556

- The Municipal Museum – has a considerable estate especially coming from two ancient convents of Portalegre, Santa Clara and St. Bernard, as well as private donations;

- The House Museum Jose Regio – In this poet’s collection there is a place of choice for the simple things in popular art, where coexist sacred art pieces from rural everyday

- The Municipal Library, The Santa Clara Convent- Is the second oldest monastic establishment of Portalegre. Its foundation dates back to the second half of the fourteenth century, more specifically the year 1376.

Recommended activities in Portalegre

To enjoy the natural heritage is at all advisable to carry out walking routes in the Natural Park running through the county. There are several walking routes:

- The Carreiras route of pedestrian ;

- The Reguengo route Pedestrian

To carry out both routes, there are flyers with the route explanation despite it is marked on the ground.

There are also viewpoints from where you can enjoy the rich landscape:

- The Mirador de Santa Luzia, located in the Sierra de Portalegre, 670 meters;

- The Penha Viewpoint, located in the Serra da Penha;

- Pico de S. Mamede, located 1025 meters above sea level, the highest point of the Portuguese mainland, south of the Tagus. Here you can enjoy the Dam Apartadura, the village of Marvão, the Serra da Estrela and part of the Spanish Extremadura. Very interesting from the perspective of geology, has limestone and quartzite, greywacke and shale, which provides different soils;

- The Viewpoint of  Nossa Senhora da Lapa, a small church carved in the rock with an amazing view of the Natural Park .

Following its conquest by Alfonso I in the 1160s, and its brief recapture by Almohads in the 1190s, Marvão’s situation remained fragile around the start of the 13th century: it was listed among Portuguese territories only in the termo of Castelo Branco in 1214. Marvão was a recently conquered outpost, that needed to be fully integrated into Portugal, and which stood on the edge of territories conquered by an expansionist Kingdom of León.

The process of Portuguesification began under the reigns of kings Sancho I and Alfonso II. Yet it was the famous Christian victory over the Almohads at Navas de Tolosa (near Jaén) in 1212 – leaving 100,000 Moors dead – that would effectively secure this area of south-western Iberia, and establish a lasting peace. The São Mamede mountains and Guadiana valleys now became a bridgehead from which the reconquista could make strong inroads into Almohad territory in the Southern Alentejo, Algarve, Southern Extremadura and north-west Andalusia.

Marvão’s role as fortress now became more important not as a Christian or Moorish outpost-against-the-infidel, but as a territorial marker for the young – and by no means militarily strong – state of Portugal against the competing Christian Kingdom of León. In 1226, Marvão was among the earliest towns on the eastern border to receive from Sancho II of Portugal its foral (i.e. royal charter, allowing the town to regulate its administration, borders and privileges).

Another aspect of 13th century statecraft that would bolster the area’s ‘Portugalidade’ (Portuguese identity) would be the settlement of planted Christian colonists from the north (Galicia, the Minho), southern France and Flanders in territories around Marvão. This was done with royal approval, and with the intermediation of the Templars and Hospitallers.

The resettlement of barren areas depopulated by centuries of warfare and bloodshed – or simply abandoned by fleeing Berber refugees – was vital to sustain the new Portuguese kingdom. Many of these settlers were Galicians, and the name of the hamlet of Galegos in Marvão is likely to refer to its 13th–14th century settlers. Other nearby settlements took names from southern France: in the nearby Templar-controlled village of Nisa (Nice), we find hamlets named Tolosa (Toulouse),Montalvão (Montauban) and Arez (Arles) to denote the origins of their settlers.

Perhaps the most important development for Marvão at this time was the donation of borderlands to the military orders. The Templars, strong allies of Alfonso I, had during the 12th century been given lands north of the Tagus, including their headquarters in  Tomar and Castelo Branco, Also given broad responsibility to secure the river passage . In 1199, Sancho I of Portugal awarded lands to the north of Marvão (the Herdade da Açafa).

These extended across the present-day districts of Castelo de Vide and Nisa and into territories near Valencia de Alcántara that now lie in Spain. In 1232, Sancho II of Portugal donated further extensive domains south of the Tagus around Marvão and Portalegre to the Knights Hospitaller, along with the duty to fortify the frontier and help in its repopulation. The Hospitallers would dominate the administration of the region for two centuries, moving their Portuguese headquarters from Leça in Northern Portugal to nearby Crato in 1340.

Much of the architecture to be admired today in Marvão can be attributed to the guiding hand of the Hospitallers in extending the castle and village in the 13th-15th centuries. Hospitaller (Maltese) crosses can be seen on houses throughout Marvão’s walled village, including the door of the church that is the Municipal Museum.

Perched on a granite crag of the Serra de São Mamede, Marvão’s name is derived from an 8th-century Muladi duke, named Ibn Marwan. Ibn Marwan used the fortress as a power base when establishing an independent statelet (“emirate”, duchy) covering much of modern day Portugal  during the Emirate of Cordoba (884-931 CE). The castle and walled village were further fortified through the centuries, notably under Sancho II of Portugal (13th century) and Dinis of Portugal.

The village has generated significant tourist interest in recent years. It was included in the #1 New York Times bestselling book, ’1000 Places to see Before you Die’. Nobel prize-winning author José Saramago wrote of the village ‘‘From Marvão one can see the entire land…

It is understandable that from this place, high up in the keep at Marvão Castle, visitors may respectfully murmur, ‘How great is the world.’’

 In the 1950′s, author Huldine V. Beamish wrote of Marvão ‘”There is an atmosphere about the district (of Marvão) that is very ancient. At times you have the same peculiar feelings as those evoked by Stonehenge and that amazing druid monument at Callernish in the Isle of Lewis. Picking your way along the steep stony pathways, you would not be at all surprised to meet a Phoenician trader or Roman Soldier. It would be the most natural thing in the world.’.

An annual international classical music festival, under the artistic direction of German conductor Christoph Poppen, was launched in Marvão in July 2014.

Commanding spectacular views across the Tagus basin and Serra de Estrela to the north, the fortified rock of Marvão has been a site of significant strategic importance since the earliest human settlements.

Today lying on the line that divides Portugal and Spain, Marvão has consistently stood on a frontier zone between peoples: Celtici, Vettones and Lusitani (4th-2nd century BCE); Lusitanians and the Romans of Hispania Ulterior (2nd-1st century BCE); migratory Suevi, Alans, Vandals and Visigoths (5th-7th century CE); conquering moors and Visigoths (8th century); muwallad rebels and the Cordoban emirate (9th-10th century); Portuguese nation-builders and Moors (12th-13th century); Templars and Hospitallers (12th-14th century); Portuguese and Castilians (12th century-present day); Liberals and Absolutists (19th century); the fascist regimes of Salazar and Franco (20th century).

Marvão’s natural assets have contributed to the ‘uniqueness’ of this remote village as perceived by visitors today:  as nigh-impregnable ‘eagle’s nest’ fortress perched high on a granite crag, and bordered on the south and west by the Sever river; as vital lookout-point towards the Alcántara Bridge (70 km (43 mi) away), a wide stretch of the Tagus basin and the Serra de Estrela; as a gateway to Portugal from Spain via the Porta da Espada (‘Sword Gate’) mountain pass of the Serra de São Mamede. These assets have ensured its status as the ‘Mui Nobre e Sempre Leal Vila de Marvão’ (Very Noble and Ever-Loyal Town) into the present day.