Cork Oak Forests

Portugal produces over half of the world's cork — and the majority of it grows in the Alentejo. The cork oak forests (Montados) shape the landscape like nothing else: gnarled, ancient trees with peeled, reddish-brown trunks stand like sculptures in the golden plain. It is a cultural landscape that has been sustainably managed for centuries — and which was recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2018.

The cork harvest (Descortiçamento) is a fascinating spectacle. Every nine years, the bark of a tree is peeled by hand with special axes — a job that requires skill and experience to avoid injuring the tree. A good cork peeler can handle 20 trees a day. The freshly peeled trunks glow in an intense orange-red, which slowly darkens over months. The trunks bear a number — the last harvest year.

The best places to experience cork oak forests are the roads between Évora and Monsaraz (N256 and N255), the area around Grândola (here stands one of the oldest cork oaks in the world, estimated to be over 230 years old), and the region around Coruche, which calls itself the "world capital of cork."

At the Observatório do Sobreiro near Coruche, you can learn everything about cork production: from the tree to the wine cork, with tours of the factory and the adjacent forest. In Évora, several shops in the old town sell beautiful cork products — from handbags to wallets to umbrellas, all made from cork.

The Montados are also ecologically invaluable: They are home to the Iberian lynx (one of the rarest predators in the world), the black stork, and the Spanish imperial eagle. Those who are lucky — and get up very early — can spot lynxes in the forests south of Mértola.