Brief History of Alvorge
The first reference of Alvorge appears in 1141 in a document, where D. Afonso Henriques (1st King of Portugal) donates in will the farm of Alvorge and its tower, located in the Land of Ladeia, to the Monastery of Santa Cruz de Coimbra.
The word 'Alvorge', which means small fort or little tower, goes back to the existing Arab occupation in this place. The Christian settling in the lands of Ladeia (a kind of moving border, sometimes belonging to the Christians, sometimes to the Arabs), which included Alvorge, had begun with D. Afonso Henriques, whose objective was to widen the Portuguese border to the South.
For such he ordered the construction of the castle of germanelo in 1142, and promoted the settling of Christians in these lands by giving exemption of taxes, and full pardon to all who had committed crimes of robbery or murder, with the sole condition of the settlers to establish in this area and cultivate it.
There is a legend associated with the Castle of Germanelo; according to which there were two giant brothers, 'germanelos', living each one on their own mount, one in the Gerumelo to the South, and the other, Melo, to the North. They were blacksmiths and as they had only a hammer, they shared it between themselves. One day, the Gerumelo with bad humor sent the hammer to his brother with such a force, that it disassembled in the air. The iron mace fell at the bottom of the Melo mount, where appeared a spring with iron taste in the water; the handle that was made of 'zambujo' (wild olive tree) fell a bit far away, and gave origin to the village of 'Zambujal' (meaning wild olive grove).
The history of Alvorge goes back to more remote times with signs of occupation previous to the Romans; It were the Romans who built the defense tower (of which nothing remains today, only memories...) of the water spring in Alvorge. In the presumed place of this tower one can see today the ruins of a medieval palace built by Portuguese noblemen descendents from D. Pedro and Inês de Castro. There are no more than a few walls remaining and the coat of arms, remembering how magnificent this place was one day. This is also where another piece of living history can still be found, the old trail to the ruins, once a main roman road connecting Aeminium (today Coimbra) and Conimbriga to Sellium (today Tomar), is part of the ancient and historic 'Caminho de Santiago', the pilgrims way to Santiago de Compostela, on which we can still see pilgrims occasionally.
It's interesting to visit several chapels in the area (many of them from medieval times), the church and some ancient houses in Alvorge. It's also woth visiting the windmills in Outeiro, the reproductions of traditional wooden windmills that once covered the tops of most mounts in the area.
