The Municipality of Beja is a local authority. The county of Beja is located at the heart of the wide plain of Alentejo (south of Portugal) and extends over an area of 1146 km2. Known during the Roman Empire as Pax Julia, Beja stately rises over the Alentejo plain. There are many reasons to visit and stay in Beja, taking the time to enjoy the famous hospitality of its people: heritage, natural beauty, tradition, gastronomy, history, culture… The flavours and the talents of its people are the main ingredients of Beja’s Creative Tourism programme.

BEJA CRIARTE

Activities/Workshops:

Breadmaking Workshop
Bread is one of the most emblematic elements in the Mediterranean diet and in Alentejo’s traditional cooking. Outside the Alentejo, it is a symbol of the region and is used in almost all typical dishes. This activity will recreate traditional bread making processes, from flour grinding in an old wind mill, to the making and cooking of bread in a traditional wood oven. Visitors will have the opportunity to participate in each of these tasks and finally to taste the final result!

Traditional Cooking Workshop
Learn the secrets of Alentejo’s traditional cooking at the source, by those who have learned it from their mothers and grandmothers – this is our challenge to you! These sessions will teach you about the ingredients and techniques to recreate the flavours of a centuries-old gastronomic tradition, strongly influenced by the Mediterranean culture and very special in the art of creating intensely flavoured dishes from a simple base of olive oil, bread and herbs. At the end… enjoy your meal!

Buinho Workshop
The craftsman’s work rarely begins and ends in the making of a piece. For those who work with buinho (a local material from the Alentejo, similar to wicker) and know how to weave it into seats and chairs, this rule is no exception. Before applying it to the piece, generally furniture, the craftsman has to reap the buinho from the fields, to dry it, and to store it in a dry place. Only then does the process of application to the piece in hand begin. An experienced craftsman can make a chair seat in two or three hours. For the participants in this workshop, the challenge is simply to learn and try the most basic skills and principles of this traditional art.

Traditional Singing Evenings
The Traditional Singing Evenings will be moments of celebration of Alentejo’s Traditional Choral Singing – the Cante Alentejano. Visitors will have the opportunity to learn about the stories and the memories of the rural life from which Cante emerged … and also to sing. These workshops will be, above all, moments of sharing of old ways and memories, cheered up by the traditional “petisco” and a glass of wine, in which the strong cultural identity of Alentejo will be visited at its roots, through the melancholic powerful sound of Cante.

Telling a Tale
This activity celebrates local oral tradition, which is a fundamental aspect of Beja’s and Alentejo’s cultural immaterial heritage. Telling old tales, participants will recreate old traditions and ways of life and dive into the territory’s deepest cultural tradition. Around a selected theme of local culture, the ball of stories is undone. If told with spirit, these tales become the stories of our own lives.

Location: County of Beja    Datae: to announce


Language(s) available for the workshop(s): Portuguese │ English │ Spanish

For more information / Contact:
Website: under construction
Email: gdei@cm-beja.pt