After our Christmas holiday on the coast, Shirley, Twila and I travel several miles inland to a very small village near the boarder with Spain -- Bens.
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| Small roads and green grass. |
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| Cork tree after harvest. The red paint is the date of harvest. Cork is big in Portugal. |
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| Our lodging: 2 bedrooms w/ private baths and combined kitchen, dining and sitting area. Great view of the sunset -- $45/night. |
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| Except for the few streets, the village is stucco houses and walls. |
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| A recent public improvement project--wood fired, community oven. |
We spent most of two days walking north and south along an abandoned railroad that passes next to Bens
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| The north end originates at the Sao Domingos mine. A tremendous ruined copper mine. We are the only ones walking through this environmental mess that stretches for more than a mile. On the map, above, it appears as a beige line extending up from the red circle. |
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| To the south it's more pastoral and includes several small, collapsed bridges, a crumbling tunnel and this fairly impressive, long abandoned stone structure. In this direction, the railway ended at the Rio Guadiana, several miles past where we turned around. |
15 minutes west of Bens is the historic town of Mertola first inhabited by the Phoenicians a few hundred years BC. followed by, among others, the Romans, Moors and Christians. The main attraction was the Rio Guadiana which, eventually runs along the border with Spain and connects to the Atlantic.
Considering this little town is quite off the beaten path it's history is varied and deep.
Since 1960, when the Sao Domingos mine began to close the population declined from over 20,000 to less than 8,000.
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| From the hill top fort looking east, over the oldest mosque in Portugal, now the Church of the Assumption of Mary, to the Rio Guadiana and bridge that takes us to Bens. |
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| The castle with a modern, above ground cemetery in the foreground. |
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| Between the mosque/church and the fort/castle are the ruins of an Islamic village--on top of a 5th century "Episcopal Palace!" |
Mertola has several small museums but our time was limited and constrained by the weekend and Monday--all times when public places are closed.
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| The displays we did see are simple but nicely done. |
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| Finally, not all southern Portuguese residences are stuccoed as is demonstrated by this somewhat random, full-on tile facade along the main street of a small village. |
