Tapada Garden of the Palace of the Conde de Avillez
The Tapada dos Condes de Avillez is a green space recently designated by the City Council as a public garden for recreation and leisure, located in the upmarket area of the City of Santiago do Cacém: the Historic Centre.
The Tapada was most likely designed and started before 1901, and between that date and the early years of the 1920’s, the Countess D. Maria Carolina (widow of the 3rd Count of Avillez) developed the Tapada in the western part of the palace, between the palace and the wall of the Castle barbican.
Conceived initially as a botanical garden of romantic inspiration, the Tapada includes several recovered buildings, and is confined within the limits of a crenellated wall (in a continuation of the Barbican). The main entrance to the Tapada is via the old Town Gate (located in the castle barbican). The Chapel of St. George, constructed in 1902, was built in memory of the 3rd and 4th Counts of Avillez, and attempts to create the image of a small cathedral. Opposite the chapel there is a terrace over the patio and roof of the palace, guarded by railings with neo-Gothic arches, while behind the building there is a clearing, predating the tomb of Bem Mirado, the favourite horse of the 4th Count, which died of old age in the 1920s. To the north of the chapel is the Jardim das Aromáticas, where you can still see an old irrigation gully and a small fountain with tank and the well / cistern with a quadrangular nozzle, built on solid masonry arches. Above, on this side of the enclosure, what remains of the Neogothic Greenhouse can be seen. South of the chapel is the Tea House, where, in its east-facing main façade, a potentially Manueline gateway can be seen.
Opening hours: April to September from 10.00 am to 12.30 pm and from 2.30 pm to 6.00 pm – October to March 10.00 am to 12.30 pm and from 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays, Easter, Christmas and New Year
Figueira River Country Park
A former farm manor house belonging to Commander J J Salema Andrade Guerreiro de Aboim, who bequeathed it to the 2nd Counts of Avillez, it became property of the Municipality in the late twentieth century. This space was the subject of a municipal study, which led to it becoming a country park. It is a good example of integration of a green space into an urban agglomeration.
In this green area geared towards free time and leisure you can enjoy direct contact with nature and the pleasure it offers. It has several sports facilities (swimming pools, a running track, playing fields: volleyball, basketball, handball and badminton), and constitutes an outstanding example of recovery, restoration and protection of architectural and natural heritage.
The Municipal Pools complex fits into this space. Its garden, playground and picnic area are a veritable green lung for those frequenting them, attracting hundreds of people each year to enjoy this magnificent area of unspoiled nature.
The drive to recover green spaces and leisure facilities has been led by Santiago do Cacém City Council, with the aim of benefiting and filling the leisure time of residents and visitors in a healthy manner.
Open all year
Quinta dos Olhos Bolidos
The Quinta dos Olhos Bolidos is located in the parish of Santa Cruz and dates back to the eighteenth century. It is an old manor farm that belonged to the bishop of Nanjing and his nephew, Friar Bernardo Falcão Murzello (the author of “Memories of the Old Miróbriga”). Its name comes from the abundance of water, the “olhos de água” that support an extensive irrigation system that feeds fountains, waterfalls, water works and tanks in formal gardens and orchards. The main building does not have any features that hint at its advanced age. The highlights of the farm are the gardens and the orchards, structured and subjected to a spatial composition that relates its main elements and functional areas. Classified as a Monument of Public Interest and a Fixed Special Protection Area.
Monte das Relvas
Property of the Commander of Santiago do Cacém, J J Salema de Andrade Guerreiro de Aboim, it must have been built or extended in the early nineteenth century. In fact, the gateway that guards the entrance to the building, with its urns and its pediment embellished with scrolls and fins, greatly resembles the decorative language of the left side gable of his palace in Santiago do Cacém, also finished at the beginning of the same century. Next to it there is a currently abandoned windmill constructed using well worked masonry unusual in this type of construction. At the entrance portal there is a cartouche with the date 1833, as if to mark the end of the war between D. Pedro and D. Miguel.
Quinta da Mandorelha
The oldest mention of the farm consists of a visit made by the Order of Santiago to the commendation of Cercal, in the year 1492. During the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries the farm underwent significant improvements, of which the construction of a Casa de Fresco, of the bulwark type, a dam for river recreation, the fountain of São António and a water mill, which is today called Casa das Heras, were of particular note.
Another dam on the farm dates back to a much more distant time, probably to the Roman period and is linked to the mining of the hills of Cercal. It is smaller, but boasts good masonry work.
