Mértola

The town’s main attraction is its castle, built by the Moors, with a guard tower from the 13th-century. The main church, with its sculpted façade, contains elements from the Manueline period, occupies the site of what once was an ancient mosque. Mértola has three important museum sites as a consequence of the intense archeological activity there. The Roman museum occupies the Town Hall building. The Islamic collection includes the country’s most important archive of ceramic objects. Here too is one of the rarest early Christian basilicas in the entire Iberian peninsula (dating from the V century).