Viana do Alentejo
Caminho Nascente
Viana do Alentejo is a pleasant town with a historic castle and good supermarkets. Given that there are few, if any, accommodation options between here and Évora, it’s an obvious place to spend the night.
The receptionist at the castle was responsible for way-marking the stage leading into Viana do Alentejo and is a good source of information about the camino, besides having an official stamp. Although the castle walls and towers can be appreciated from the outside, it’s worth paying to go in to see the striking Manueline portal of one of the two churches inside.
Leaving Viana do Alentejo, the camino to Évora is a tough stage of 36km, including 15km on a busy road (the N254) after Aguiar with possibly no shoulder to walk on depending on how recently the weeds on the side of the road have been cut. An unofficial option to break up this stage and avoid the difficult road stretch would be to head northwest from Viana do Alentejo on the N257 and join up with the N380. This would still entail road walking but the N380 is a secondary road and there are accommodation options to break up the stage, unlike on the N254.