7 objects with history between Redondo and Ossa Mountain

Between the town of Redondo and Ossa mountain there’s a lot to see and do. Here are 7 things you can’t miss on a visit to this municipality in the Alentejo, which knows how to welcome visitors like no one else.   From the town centre, with its medieval castle and the Town Hall building, between Redondo and Ossa mountain there is much to see and to do. We could talk about the gastronomy, but we opted to learn about the much awarded wines of the county, and we also tell stories about the Convent of São Paulo and the unique soul hole of Anta da Candeeira. And, in a town that every two years decorates itself with flowery streets, the paper flower is the last of the 7 objects with history between Redondo and Ossa mountain that we highlight.

1. Ravessa Gate

Let’s start at the beginning, as it should. Let us start with the medieval castle built by D. Dinis and its greatest symbol: the Porta da Ravessa (Ravessa Gate).

Rui Mataloto, archaeologist, tells us about this gateway to the castle, which still preserves its Gothic architectural features, with the royal coat-of-arms. This was the door facing Vila Viçosa and to the east and, due to its geographical orientation, it was given two names.

“It has the curiosity – he tells us – of having two names. Porta da Ravessa is also Porta do Sol and it is that duality that is interesting. It is Porta do Sol in the morning, because it faces the east, and it is Porta da Ravessa in the afternoon, because Ravessa has that dark, hidden meaning of the sun, which only happens in the afternoon”.

Porta da Ravessa became one of the images of the town itself when the Adega Cooperativa de Redondo decided to call its most popular wine Porta da Ravessa.

2. The keep

The keep dates from long after the castle was built. In the second half of the 15th century, says Rui Mataloto, the old Alcaidaria tower had become too small for the might of the Alentejo town and the inhabitants of Redondo petitioned King Afonso V, who “granted this grace to Redondo, but told them that yes sir, they can build a new tower, but there is no money.”

The population again appeals for royal grace and D. Afonso V “ended up imposing a new tax on the inhabitants of the city of Évora” to pay for the keep of Redondo. This tax was on the consumption of wine.

“Every time you bought wine in Évora you had to pay something extra to pay for the construction of the keep in Redondo,” he says. Rui Mataloto has a small smile when he tells this story because it has an ending that reminds him of something…

“Once the tower was built, the inhabitants of Évora petitioned the king, then King D. João II, to stop paying the tax and, apparently, the monarch turned a deaf ear and continued with the tax even though the purpose for which it had been established had already been completed.

3. The Wines of Redondo

Between Redondo and Ossa mountain there is not exactly the Alentejo plain, although the view stretches as far as Évora. This is one of the secrets to the quality of Redondo wines. All the large wineries which were born in this municipality have internationally awarded wines.

This is the case of the Casa Agrícola Alexandre Relvas. The son of the founder of the winery, who adds to his father’s name the surname Júnior, explains in conversation with Ana Bravo for Hit the Road, what makes Redondo so special as far as wines are concerned: “It is a fantastic county for producing wines!”.

There is the morphology of the soil and sun exposure as determining factors. Alexandre Relvas Júnior underlines that “there is a key point which is the 3 thousand hours of sunshine which leads the grapes to a fantastic maturation and to produce wines which may never be the best in the world, but which the consumer likes, with their own personality”. By this he means that “the wines are not made to win prizes”. In the Alentejo, gastronomy and wine are “a form of worship”.

The diversity of soils and the different solar exposures of the land between Redondo and Serra d’Ossa explain this excellence. “The Alentejo plain is something that doesn’t exist in Redondo. Everything around is undulating. We start at the foot of the mountain where there are high quality soils, all the way to the area where we are, which has very friable schist where the roots can grow into the schist, which brings an extraordinary freshness to the wines, all the way to the granite soils in the Freixo area. There is a lot of diversity”.

To the conditions of the land, one must also add that of the quality in the production of wines that the Redondo wineries have been achieving for many years. This is also the reason why today the municipality is a reference in Alentejo wine production.

4. The hole of the soul

Let’s go back in time and walk a few kilometres between Redondo and Ossa mountain. At the entrance to Aldeia da Serra is the Candeeira dolmen. This is a unique megalithic monument because in the headstone there is a perfectly circular hole which, in the 19th century, gave archaeologists much food for thought.

José Leite de Vasconcelos, the famous archaeologist responsible for the first systematised studies of megalithics in Portugal, suggested that the hole was a manifestation of the prehistoric worldview and called it the hole of the soul, claiming that it was through this hole that the souls of the dead would depart.

This designation gained popularity and that’s how the circular hole is still known today, but soon afterwards a French archaeologist contested Leite de Vasconcelos’ interpretation and stated that there were indications that the hole would have been made with metallic instruments and, consequently, much later.

Rui Mataloto would be the one to unveil the mystery. “We made excavations and found indications that the space would have been used and inhabited at the end of the 13th century, beginning of the 14th century. The best hypothesis, we believe, for the use of that space as habitation would be its connection with the hermitage community. Because this community of Ossa mountain had a particularity that later spread to other areas, which is that – with some frequency – they opened small cavities in the rock where they practiced temporary ascetic retreats”.

“This is the best explanation for the use of the dolmen and for the opening of the so-called soul hole, which has an interesting ideological component, because there was no need to open that peephole, as there would be enough light to enter. However, by opening it, one can see both the sunset and the connection to the convent’s own site”.

5. Saint Paul Hermit tile panel

Candeeira’ dolmen is located between Redondo and Ossa mountain. If we climb a little further up, right at the top, we have the convent that the hermit wanted to be close by when making the oculus in the megalithic monument.

The convent, which is now a rural hotel, houses the most important collection of 18th century Portuguese tiles in situ. On the walls of its corridors are depictions of all the great masters who raised the art of the Portuguese tile to its highest level.

Eduardo Bon de Sousa, the hotel’s general manager, tells us the story of one of the most important panels found here: the one that tells the story of the encounter between São Paulo Eremita and Santo Antão.

In these panels that tell us about biblical episodes, we chose the one with the story of the saint whose example the monks followed in the convent.

“Saint Anthony would be, in theory, the first of the hermits, but he receives a message from God, who tells him that it is not right because there is Saint Paul, who has been in isolation in the desert of Thebaida for a long time and guided him to Saint Paul, who lived as a true hermit. He did not speak to anyone, unlike St. Anthony, and lived under a date palm tree and has a raven that brings him half a loaf of bread every day. The day Saint Anthony meets him, the crow sends him a whole loaf of bread to let him know that he is before another saint and that he must communicate with Saint Anthony”.

6. The Town Hall

Between Redondo and Ossa mountain we have been walking. The time has come to return to the town of Alentejo to look at the Town Hall.

When the town extends to Rossio, the construction of a new building becomes necessary. “In a national context of affirmation of absolute royal power, it was with King José that its construction began,” says Rui Mataloto.

Manuel da Maia, “the brigadier who, under the guidance of the Marquis of Pombal, would shortly afterwards direct the rebuilding of Lisbon” after the earthquake, was in charge of the building.

But the Largo do Município has other points of interest. “The paving is by Eduardo Nery, invited by the architect Formosinho Sanches, when he did the Palace of Justice. And in the lake there is another sculptural element made by Jorge Vieira. “Along with the one in Lisbon, the Praça da República in Redondo is the only one that brings these two artists together.

7. The paper flower

The paper flower has an important meaning in Redondo. Every two years, the “Rua Floridas” (Flower Streets) fill the whiteness of the Alentejo town with colour and attract thousands of visitors, who thus get to know Redondo and Ossa mountain, and the skill and art of its inhabitants.

This is a festival in which the expression of the community feeling is present, as in few others in the country. The neighbours of the streets that decorate themselves at the beginning of August start preparing the decorations nearly a year in advance.

The origin of the decoration dates back to the mid-19th century, but the genesis of the feast goes back further. The historian and researcher José Calado discovered a document from 1763 in which the people of Redondo promised the Virgin of Pé da Cruz that they would hold an annual feast in her honour if she interceded and put an end to the great drought at the time.

Only about a century later, paper flowers would start appearing on the windows of the wealthiest houses. People liked it, replicated the gesture, and so the flowery streets of Redondo were born.

“In August, in the Alentejo, we don’t have many flowers. We never have, with this scorching heat. And the festivals become more beautiful if they have flowers. The fact that they use artificial flowers made of paper and very colourful ends up being an escape.”

With the story of these seven objects, we get to know better the territory between Redondo and Ossa mountain. A municipality with a lot to offer visitors, with a strong culture where the singing still echo and with a gastronomy that, just by thinking about it, leaves us salivating.