Elvas - Fort of Graca - Badajoz

Route: Lisbon - Elvas - Fort of Graca - Badajoz - Lisbon
Duration: 11 h
The first stop of our tour will be at the biggest fortified city in Portugal and Europe. Elvas is a Portuguese former episcopal city and frontier fortress of easternmost central Portugal. Elvas is among the finest examples of intensive usage of the trace italienne military architecture, and has been a list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In your arrival at Elvas, you will visit to the city’s main sites like Roman Catholic Diocese of Elvas and fort Nossa Senhora da Graça. Elvas city it was wrested from the Moors by Afonso I of Portugal in 1166 but was temporarily recaptured before its final occupation by the Portuguese in 1226. In 1570 it became an episcopal see, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Elvas, until 1818. Its late Gothic cathedral, which has also many traces of Moorish influence in its architecture, dates from the reign of Manuel I of Portugal (1495–1521).It is defended by seven bastions and the two forts of Santa Luzia and Nossa Senhora da Graça. From 1642 until modern times it was the chief frontier fortress south of the Tagus, which withstood sieges by the Spanish in 1659, 1711 and 1801. Elvas was the site of the Battle of the Lines of Elvas in 1659, during which the garrison and citizens of the city assisted in the rout of a Spanish Army. The fortress of Campo Maior 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) to the northeast are known for its Napoleonic era siege by the French and relief by the British under Marshal Beresford in 1811, an exploit commemorated in a ballad by Sir Walter Scott. The last stop of our tour will be spanish city known for its Moorish historic quarter with the fortresslike Cathedral of San Juan Bautista where  we will visit and see downtown of Badajoz, Puente de Palmasand the Fuerte de San Cristobal and the Alcazaba, or fortress, that was the origin of the city, the dwelling of the Kings of the Taifa Kingdom and the defensive structure which made Badajoz a strategic fort to control the area's historical borders. Also you can discover  Alcazaba - one of the best conserved walled Arab castles in the whole of Spain with various towers still intact.  Historical quarter the old part of the town to admire the old plazas (especially Plaza de San José, Plaza de España and La Plaza Alta) and churches. Look for the two towers flanking the old entrance to the city dating from the 16th century, Puerta de Palmas. Will visit to  Iglesia de Santa Domingo, Iglesia San Andrés, Iglesia San Agustín de la Concepción. Spend time in  Catedral de San Juan - a very impressive building built between the 13th and 16th centuries. Predominantly gothic and romanic, with three aisles and twelve inner chapels. Will see  a bridge  Puente de las Palmas wich was built in the 16th century and crossing the Guadiana river with 32 arches, 582m in length and 13m in height. Also you can visit to  museums in Badajoz: MEIZC, Extremadura's Iberoamerican Museum of Contemporary Art, Virgen de Guadalupe, 7. Impressive red brick building; Museo Arqueológico, Palacio de los Duques de la Roca, in the interior of the Alcazaba on the site of the old Mosque with many exhibits of prehistoric, Roman, Visigo and Arab objects; Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes, San German, 1, Art gallery.After we will return to Lisbon.
Price: per person