By train

Beja train station, with trains from/to Evora, Faro, Lisbon.

By car

North - IP2 from Evora.
South - IP2 from Ourique and Castro Verde or EN 122 from Mertola.
East - IP8 from Serpa.
West - IP8 from Ferreira do Alentejo.

By bus

Daily buses departs from/to major cities.
 

Castle

The castle on top of the hill can be seen from afar and dominates the town. It was built, together with the town walls, under the reign of king Diniz in the 13th century over the remains of a Roman castellum that had been fortified by the Moors. It consists of battlemented walls with four square corner towers and a central granite and marble keep (Torre de Menagem), with its height of 40 m the highest in Portugal. The top of the keep can be accessed via a spiral staircase with 197 steps, passing three stellar-vaulted rooms with Gothic windows. The merlons of the machicolation around the keep are topped with small pyramids. Standing on the battlements, one has a sensational panorama over the surrounding landscape. One can also glimpse the remains of the city walls that once had forty turrets and five gates. The castle now houses a small military museum.

Visigothic Museum

The whitewashed Latin-Visigothic church of Santo Amaro, dedicated to Saint Amaro, standing next to the castle, is one of just four pre-Romanesque churches left in Portugal. Some parts date from the sixth century and the interior columns and capitals are carved with foliages and geometric designs from the seventh century. Especially the column with birds attacking a snake is of particular note. It houses today a small archaeological museum with Visigothic art.

Museu da Rainha D. Leonor

This regional museum was set up in 1927 and 1928 in the former convent Our Lady of the Conception (Convento de Nossa Senhora da Conceição) of the Order of Poor Ladies (dissolved in 1834), gradually expanding its collection. This Franciscan convent had been established in 1459 by Infante Fernando, Duke of Viseu and duke of Beja, next to his ducal palace. The construction continued until 1509.It is an impressive building with a late-Gothic lattice-worked architrave running along the building. This elegant architrave resembles somewhat the architrave of the Monastery of Batalha, even if there are some early-Manueline influences.

The Botanical Museum

The Botanical Museum located at Escola Superior Agrária de Beja is a scientific and cultural centre created to display temporary exhibitions that show the millenary alliance established between Man and the Plants.The Museum conserves, studies and divulges items and knowledge coming from economic botany and ethnobotany research in Portugal and abroad.Throughout the study of items made from plants, raw materials and natural objects, the visitor can rediscover the ingeniousness of man and the creative power of Nature.
 

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