It’s a village in the heart of the Alentejo, with a small castle in the middle. And within those castle walls, in 1993, a historic pousada (Castelo Alvito Pousada) emerged bearing Islamic, Gothic and Manueline influences.
The castle was built in the 15th century, damaged in the 18th century (by the 1755 earthquake), attacked in the 19th century (during the Portuguese civil war), classified as a national monument in the 20th century (1910) and restored in the 1940s. In the post-Carnation Revolution period, it was occupied by the Alvito Residents’ Committee, which used to hold bull runs in the interior courtyard.
This is the Alentejo. When the then prime minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva inaugurated the Castelo Alvito Pousada in 1993, he initially got an uneasy reception from the local mining union choral group. In the end, things worked out, with the group enjoying something to eat and drink, as well as getting the chance to sing. Nowadays, the pousada is managed by a co-operative, Novalvito, which also runs the Alvito Vocational College. The restaurant invites students from the college into the team and maintains a strong bond with the local community, who are sometimes invited to “pedagogical lunches”.
Restored and adapted by the architect Manuel Bagulho, as well as landscaped by Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles, the pousada is blessed with a pedagogical vegetable garden that has around 70 varieties that supply the restaurant’s kitchen. Culinary matters aside, other highlights include the games and reading rooms, which were once cellars and stables.
Essentials
Alvito Pousada
A small castle in the heart of a small village in the heart of Alentejo.