Why this ride
A 177 km round trip from Évora - roughly 2 h 24 in the saddle. On the way it passes Fortlet of São Domingos, Amoreira Aqueduct, Fortlet of São Pedro and Fort of Santa Luzia and the covered way.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Evora day out · Fort of Santa Luzia and the covered way
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 177 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 24
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Evora
Alentejo is the part of Portugal that looks as if someone had ironed it. South and east of the Tagus, the land rolls out in low swells of wheat, olive and cork oak, with white villages on the hills and storks nesting on the chimneys, and Évora sits in the middle of it, about 130 kilometres east of Lisbon. It is a walled city of some fifty-five thousand, and for riders it is the natural pause in a long day of empty road.
Read the complete Evora write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Evora is where the day begins. Next is Fortlet of São Domingos.
2. Fortlet of São Domingos
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.
Read the complete Fortlet of São Domingos write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fortlet of São Domingos comes up about 84 km into the recorded legs. Next is Amoreira Aqueduct.
3. Amoreira Aqueduct
Seven kilometres of arches carried water to Elvas, and the people of the town took a century to finish building them. The Amoreira Aqueduct was begun in the sixteenth century, when the old cisterns were no longer enough for a growing garrison town, and it was not finished until the early seventeenth, after a long stop and start, and a great deal of money, including a special tax on the townspeople. The result is a structure that strides across the plain on up to four tiers of arches, rising to about thirty metres, with hundreds of arches in all. It can be seen from far off, a long grey line over the fields, and where it comes into town it dwarfs the houses.
Read the complete Amoreira Aqueduct write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
At least about 91 km into the recorded legs you reach Amoreira Aqueduct. Next is Fortlet of São Pedro.
4. Fortlet of São Pedro
The Alentejo plain rolls away from Elvas in every direction, a country of cork oak, olive and wheat, and the little fort of São Pedro stands on a low hill outside the town as one of a ring of outworks around it. Elvas is a town ringed by star-shaped bastions built in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Portugal and Spain fought repeatedly over this frontier, and just across the border lies Badajoz. The fortified town and its outer forts, including the fortlets of São Pedro, São Mamede and São Domingos, were listed by UNESCO in 2012 as the largest dry-ditch fortification system in the world.
Read the complete Fortlet of São Pedro write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fortlet of São Pedro, about halfway. Next is Fort of Santa Luzia and the covered way.
5. Fort of Santa Luzia and the covered way
From the top of the Fort of Santa Luzia you can look down on Elvas like a general planning an assault. The fort stands on a rise to the south of the old town and was built from 1641, at the start of the Portuguese Restoration War, to deny enemy artillery a hill that overlooked the walls. Its shape is a star, with four bastions and a deep dry ditch, and its engineers followed the Dutch style, which was the best defensive school in Europe at that time. The walls are thick and low, built to shed cannonballs, and the corridor called the covered way runs around the outer edge of the ditch, a protected path where soldiers could move in cover and meet an attack head on.
Read the complete Fort of Santa Luzia and the covered way write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fort of Santa Luzia and the covered way sits at 100 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fortlet of São Pedro.
6. back through Fortlet of São Pedro
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortlet of São Pedro write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Fortlet of São Pedro comes up about 94 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Amoreira Aqueduct.
7. back through Amoreira Aqueduct
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Amoreira Aqueduct write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 95 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Amoreira Aqueduct. Next is back through Fortlet of São Domingos.
8. back through Fortlet of São Domingos
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortlet of São Domingos write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Fortlet of São Domingos, late in the day. Next is Evora.
9. Evora
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Evora write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 177 km.
Leg by leg
Evora to Fortlet of São Domingos
Evora → Fortlet of São Domingos is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Fortlet of São Domingos to Evora
back through Fortlet of São Domingos → Evora is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.