Location and details

This is an extensively restored 4 bedroom stone house with walled landscaped garden. The house is sited on an open square in the centre of this historic, medieval, walled town of Marvão (map).Marvão a future UNESCO world heritage site.is in the Alto Alentejo region of Portugal. This property is an excellent investment opportunity!

Distance in relation to other major points of interest:

Marvão

Marvão is an established destination for visitors from all over the world. It features in all major travel books and the New York Times best seller “1000 places to see before you die”. The castle and walled town are sited at approximately 3000 above the Alentejo’s plains; the spectacular views from the town are panoramic for 360o. The well known motto for Marvão is “where you can see the birds fly below”.

The Portuguese government has recently spent millions of euros upgrading the infrastructure (electricity, gas, water, drains, cable, phone and is also installing fibre optic cables for high speed internet) to comply with UNESCO’s specifications in order to receive the World Heritage Site nomination. There is at present a shortage of accommodation and with the World Heritage Site nomination demand will rise. This house is very rentable either as a whole or for bed and breakfast.

This is a resort area, and within a few kilometres are lakes for swimming and sailing.

Golf course: 5 minutes drive away, there is a golf course with 18 holes, where in the near future a 4 star hotel will be constructed. It is very cheap, costing from €26.
http://www.bookyourgolf.net/Portugal_Golf_Courses/Ammaia_Golf_de_Marvao.htm

At Portagem, a 5 minute drive away, the Sever river has been dammed to create an enormous natural swimming pool. The banks of the river are lined with trees providing shade and picnic areas.
There is also a chlorinated outdoor swimming pool, children’s pool, tennis courts, restaurants and bars.
This area of outstanding natural beauty is a natural park (Parque natural da Serra de São Mamede). It is a protected area, so building is very restricted, so the surrounding area will be kept un-spoilt for future generations.The river Sever creates a green and bucolic area with great diversity of flora and fauna.

Marvão is only 10 minutes from the Spanish border, and 20 minutes from Valência de Alcantara, a pretty Extremadura town. This provides a dual country lifestyle. Every Monday in Valência there is a large vegetable and clothing market and the town is very lively. We do our shopping and then stop for a pre lunch drink with some tapas. In the summer there are lively festivals on both sides of the frontier, a lovely way to while away warm summer nights. Every weekend there is something to do.
Several international companies organize walking, bird watching and Japanese painting holidays.

The views are breathtaking and magnificent. On clear days, which are the majority, you can see as far as the Serra da Estrela mountains, in Portugal, and the Serra de Francia, in Spain (near Salamanca).

The castle and the walled town that we have today were built on this 862 meter granite outcrop surrounded by plains, as a defense for Portugal in the 12th century. In the 1st century it was a roman fort that was to protect the city of Ammaia, located at the foot of the mountain, whose archeological remains can still be visited today.

We have a long established craft shop in Marvão and will be pleased to assist in re-location.

Easyjet now have cheap flights to Lisbon. Fly to Lisbon from just £30.99 one way, including taxes and charges. From Luton (London) and Liverpool.

See maps of Marvão, Alentejo.

Rich heritage in a poor border area

Marvão, a beautiful, whitewashed fortress town, lies to the east. Only the foolhardy and the drunk could have contemplated an assault on this eyrie. The Spanish tried for centuries to conquer the castle and only succeeded when a traitor let them in.
Link:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=T6&xml=/travel/2006/11/06/etalentejo06.xml

A spectacular sight from a spectacular site

The splendid site and 360-degree panorama alone would be reason enough to visit the medieval mountaintop village of Marvão, but the town itself (a candidate for the World Heritage list), is one of Portugal's most spectacular fortified villages.
Link:
http://www.golisbon.com/portugal/cities/marvao.html

Seeing for Miles From a Village High in the Sky

The village is high above the Alentejo region’s sun-baked plains.
From Marvão one can see the entire land,” José Saramago, the 1998 Nobel Prize winner for literature, wrote in “Journey to Portugal,” his 2001 travelogue. “It is understandable that from this place, high up in the keep at Marvão Castle, visitors may respectfully murmur, ‘How great is the world.’ ”
Link:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/travel/29explorer.html

Side view of the house, before the garden was landcaped.

Back view of the house. The arrow shows a portion of the neighbouring house that belongs to our house. It is common in these old buildings for this to happen. It means that the house is substantially larger than the other houses on the street.

(ver versão em português)