Ruins by the Roadside

Alentejo

Time has shaped Alentejo’s architecture, adapting it to the extremes of both winter and summer.

Thick whitewashed walls, small or absent windows to protect against heat and cold, and grand chimneys, rectangular or round with delicate latticework—believed to have Arabic origins—are defining elements of the Alentejo home. Beneath the arch of the chimney, families would gather, finding warmth and connection in its embrace.

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