Elvas is a border town, and borders create walls. The town of Elvas, in the Alentejo, faces Spain across a short stretch of plain, with the Spanish fortress city of Badajoz only seventeen kilometres away, and for centuries the two countries glared at each other from behind stone. Portugal built what became the largest bulwarked dry-ditch fortification system in the world, and in 2012 the Garrison Border Town of Elvas and its Fortifications were inscribed on the World Heritage list. The little Fort of Sao Domingos is one of the smaller pieces in this puzzle, a fortlet set on the edge of the plain that strengthened the defence of the town.
The great set pieces are the star-shaped ramparts of Elvas itself, built in the seventeenth century under the influence of Dutch engineers, the Fort of Santa Luzia, and the Fort of Graca, a huge stronghold built on a hill in the 1760s. Most impressive of all is the Amoreira Aqueduct, a line of tall arches, some of them in four tiers, striding across the fields for over seven kilometres, which was begun in the sixteenth century and took more than a hundred years to finish. It still brings water to the town. In 1659 the Portuguese won the Battle of the Lines of Elvas here against a Spanish army, and that victory helped secure independence.
The riding in the Alentejo is relaxed. The land is wide and open, with cork oaks and olive groves scattered across gently rolling plains, golden in summer and green after the spring rains. The roads are long, smooth and often empty, with gentle curves and long views, and the main hazards are the heat, which can reach forty degrees in July and August, and the occasional storks that nest on lamp posts and church towers. Spring and autumn are the best seasons. Early mornings in summer are sweet, but by mid afternoon the plain shimmers.
Elvas has nearly ten thousand people, so fuel and meals are no trouble. The town is famous for its sugar plums, which are preserved in syrup and eaten as dessert, and for its good bread and wine. Evora, with its Roman temple and bone chapel, is within an easy day's ride.