In Marvão, gradual consolidation of Roman power led to the establishment of a substantial Roman town in the 1st century. Ammaia occupied up to 25 hectares, and with a population exceeding modern-day Marvão (5000-6000 inhabitants) Ammaia occupied the site of the present-day parish of São Salvador da Aramenha. The town flourished between the 1st century BCE and the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century CE.

Ammaia’s location on the river Sever was the west-east waypoint on trading routes, linking towns such as Scallabis (Santarém), Eboracum (Évora), Olisipo (Lisbon) and Miróbriga (Cacém Santiago) to the provincial capital Emerita Augusta (present- Merida day) via Norba Caesarina (Cáceres).

The mountain of Marvão also would have served as a watchtower providing line-of-sight to the vitally-important Roman bridge at Alcántara. Local agricultural production (olives, wine, figs, cattle) was supplemented by horse-breeding, pottery, and mining activity – notably rock crystal and quartz veins from Marvão on the mountain, together with open cast gold mining on the Tagus to the north.

Roman Ammaia saw the development of improved irrigation and terracing across the Marvão mountain. Chestnut cultivation – Replacing the place dominance of oak is likely to have been introduced at this time. Much of the terracing and ancient watercourses on the mountain Marvão date from this era.

Limited excavations at Ammaia in the past two decades  covering a mere 3,000 m2 (32.292 sq ft) of the town’s area – have revealed the success, provincial expanding town that included running water, a forum, baths, the bridge over the river Sever (near today’s ‘Old Bridge’), and monumental gates (one gate was removed to Castelo de Vide in the 18th century, yet sadly dynamited in 1890).

The Alentejo region, meanwhile, was criss-crossed with efficient Roman roads, providing links to the wider Empire. Fine wares found at the site Ammaia suggest que Ammaia nobility had access to luxury glassware and jewelery, while archeology has Revealed que marble for the forum was imported from across the Empire. The high quality, for example, of the ‘Mosaic of the Muses’  from a Roman villa in nearby Monforte (4th century BCE)  points to the abundant riches to be made to an Alentejo landowner in the Roman era.

Sadly, many artifacts from Ammaia  in particular the series of marble sculptures were removed during the 19th and 20th centuries, notably by the Anglo-Portuguese Robinson family. These items are now in collections such as those of the British Museum.

It is speculative to comment on the population of Marvão at this time. Many carved tombs and burial chambers dot the granite boulders of the landscape around Marvão, suggesting small-scale farming settlements, and some cultural emphasis on burial rites and the afterlife. Excavations of dolmens (e.g. the Cavalinhas dolmen) reveal fetal-position buried skeletons, and grave goods including weaponry (axes, arrowheads), jewellery (necklaces), ceramics and stone idols. Cave art and engravings in the Tagus valley (40 km (25 mi) north of Marvão: 40,000 items) point to a developed culture based on prehistoric norms of agriculture, hunting and transhumance.

Further, ideograms  notably repetitions of spirals  point to both abstract ideas, religious observance, and some astronomical knowledge of lunar and solar cycles. Decorative objects – rock crystal arrowheads, floral and zig-zagged patterned stones (pedras de raio) and ceramics, deity sculptures  also suggest the development of local systems of craftsmanship, hierarchy, magic and celebration. Recent studies of idol plaques have speculated that they depict some kind of owl deity, with their engravings acting as a means to identify the individual buried by clan, marriage and lineage

It constitutes a megalithic monument with more than five thousand years old. It stands out for its size and still in very good condition.

Was classified as a National Monument in 1910.

It consists of seven granite struts with identical heights but different shapes, some props are rectangular, others have a very irregular triangular shape, the monument retains the hat comprises a single granite slab.

Is located two kilometers from the village of Aldeia da Mata, in Crato, Portalegre district.

The cave paintings dating from the third millennium BC and represent human and animal figures and hand drawings in colors ranging from red to yellow.

The most decorated shelter, and first of all to be discovered in 1914, is the Gaivões which includes the “story” of a pastoral scene, “perfectly contextualizável the typology of agro-pastoral society” installed in the region for five a thousand years.

Four cores have been identified:

1-Shelter with cave paintings of Vale de Junco or Lapa dos Gaivões

Located in the middle of a pine forest, here are anthropomorphic and zoomorphic reproduced silhouettes, hand drawings and other signs, mostly in red ocher tones, but also in other chromatic series, from yellow to black.

2-Shelter of Pinho Monteiro, in Herdade do Monte
3-Lapa dos Louções
4-Church of the Moors - Igreja dos Mouros