São Mamede Natural Park

Situated in the vast Alentejo region, next to the border with Spain, the São Mamede Mountain Natural Park occupies an area of about 31.750 hectares, with unique landscapes, housing a great variety of species.

The Park is divided in two different realities: the Northern and the Southern area. The Southern area has a smooth relief with an average altitude between the 300 and the 400 meters high, with the landscape dominated by Cork Oak and Holm Oak trees. The area is characterized by long fields, big properties, with cattle breed and cereal’s plantations.
The Northern and Central area of the Park where the São Mamede Mountain is actually situated, has altitudes higher than 800 meters, where oak and chestnut trees are abundant and the land is divided in small properties with different utilizations.

The peak of the mountain is at 1025 meters high, and it is the highest point on the south side of the river Tagus, providing a viewpoint with wonderful landscapes from where, in a clear day, it is even possible to see the ocean, located at more than 200km distance.

The São Mamede Mountain Natural Park has a great importance in a ornithological level, belonging to an important migratory route for many bird species between Europe and Africa. In its extensive area, the Park houses an important fauna with species like the Bonelli's Eagle, the Eurasian Eagle Owl, the Eurasian Black Vulture, the Griffin, the Egyptian Vulture, the Black Stork, the Black-winged Kite but also Vipers, Bats, Boars and Otters, among many other species that inhabit the area.

This Park is also quite important for its human feature, with many small villages, small towns and other important cities of great beauty, with rich history and traditions, but also a great inheritance of pre-historic and Palaeolithic vestiges, with upstream paintings, megalithic monuments, hill forts, roman ruins, among many other important Heritage legacies that are very interesting to discover.