Santo Aleixo da Restauração village - The Tomina Festivities - the brass band from the village of Amareleja and the "festeiros" - Alentejo - The 27th of August 2016

I got up fairly early and in spite of the extreme heat got ready to acknowledge the importance of the Tomina festivities and the role it all plays in the village of Santo Aleixo da Restauração.

According to historical records the festivities honouring Nossa Senhora das Necessidades, which are held in the last week of every August and comprise quite a few sequencial ceremonies, date back to 1668 and are intimately connected to the Convent of Tomina.

Its origins are said to have been initiated by the people of Santo Aleixo da Restauração following an enormous fire that could have easily destroyed their cornfields  but which just burned out the second-growth hay.


From 1688 on the religious festivities which used to atract several pilgrims from all over Alentejo, as well as from several Spanish neighbouring villages are said to have lasted till the religious orders were extinct in 1834 and the Convent of Tomina abandoned.


The existing religious figures including Nossa Senhora das Necessidades were then brought from the old Convent into the Church of Santo Aleixo and the festivities have since then been carried out following the ancient traditions as much as possible, with the Churchyard of Santo Aleixo da Restauração being at the heart of the eventful occasion.


Different yearly assigned "Festeiros" are in charge of organising the festivities, which include paying for the band, the guest artists and the fire work display amongst other things, therefore the band (this year from the Amareleja village) goes around the whole village of Santo Aleixo da Restauração stopping by everyone of the festeiros' so as to play in their honour, once it is known there is a lot of work involved and it takes a lot of stamina to organise such an event.

What we did in the morning was precisely to follow the steps of  the brass band of a neighbouring village as it  marched towards the various festeiros'. We managed to reach them as they had crossed the little river that separates the lower and the higher boroughs and then followed them back down and into the "heart" of the village to one of the festeiros'  located right in front of where I was staying at.

It did remind me of when I was young and "marched" along the military brass band musicians as they made their way to the barracks crossing the various city's streets. 

(To be continued)

Santo Aleixo da Restauração village (in the Alentejo) by night - The 26th of August 2016

We reached Santo Aleixo da Restauração in the late evening but we still ventured into the narrow streets that led to the Church, which ended up being the first glimpse of the forthcoming festivities.

The village streets were lit up with colouful iluminated decorations and so was the church. Quite a few people were to be seen sitting around the street Cafés and a rather significant number  inside the church, bearing in mind the size of the village and the fact that it was already fairly late. 

The 16th century Church with its guilded altarpiece looked interesting but I decided I would be back the following day to hopefully visit it thoroughly and take some pictures. 

On the way to Santo Aleixo da Restauração village - The "bifanas" of Vendas Novas; the Cromlech dos Almendres, Alentejo - The 26th of August 2016

As I was on my way to the village of Santo Aleixo in Baixo Alentejo thanks to my boss and his family's invitation, where I would be watching some of the local festivities, we stopped a few times, so as to get acquainted with some of the best known references of the places we were driving by starting with the "bifanas" (pork loin medalions previously marinated and later cooked in lard before being served in soft rolls) of Vendas Novas, which are in fact quite different from the ones we can have anywhere else.

Despite the fact that many small restaurants in the area have placards stating they have the "genuine bifanas" we stopped at Café da Boavista is undoubtedly the one that holds the "secret" as to make the "real" ones and the truth is I couldn't help savoring and photographing those tasty Portuguese cuisine specialties.

Somewhere along the way towards the Cromlech of Almendres we stopped briefly  (at Montemor) and I still had the chance to photograph a few interesting things, amongst which the typical wrought iron "belly" grilled window bars.

Set in a semi-ellipsoidal formation the twin stone circle of around 95 almost anthropormophic quartzite stones is considered one of the largest existing group of structured menhirs in the Iberian Peninsula. I wasn't able to photograph the whole ensemble such was the width of the circle. The location of the Cromlech as well as its equinoctical orientation seem to confirm an intentional relationship with the cyclic movement of the Sun and the Moon.


According to a squeme there should be some geometric carved stones, which we had difficulty in identifying and even photographing because of them having been rubbed out by erosion.


I was impressed with the site and more so with coming across several foreign visitors strolling around the site, especially taking into account the fact that the Cromlech is off the main road, in a rather isolated place at the end of a non-paved lane.



As we were leaving a few more people were arriving, which  led us to believe it was almost certainly because of the sun set.