And last but not least, in this series of Alentejo towns, is Avis… a quiet little place in the northern Alentejo that (I have been told) has the rather dubious claim to fame of having been, once upon a time, the capital of Portugal. This was because the king at that time was from here and he didn´t want to be bothered by moving home and family all the way to Lisbon, so he just simply declared Avis to be the capital and that was that. The joys of a monarchy 😉

However, while trying to find out if this story is true or not (hello, Google) I haven´t been able to find any information about this “capital moving”… so my sources may or may not be reliable. Does anyone know the history of Avis? I am curious to find out…