Attractions and Places To See around Arruda Dos Pisões - Top 17

Salt is extracted from compartments – pits – made of cement or stone, of varying sizes and shallow depths, to which salt water is taken from a well through irrigation channels. Currently, the water is raised by means of a motor and distributed according to a system that is jointly accepted and respected (not always) by all the owners. The sewers, threshing floors and wooden houses for storing salt complete the set of what is called the Salt Mines of Rio Maior. According to technicians, a large and deep rock salt mine, crossed by an underground current that feeds a well, makes the water extracted from it salty, seven times saltier than that of the sea. The salt is obtained from its exposure to the sun and wind and the consequent evaporation of the water, deposited at the bottom of the pits, which is then placed in pyramid-shaped piles to dry until it is collected. The process is rudimentary and similar to that used in the salt mines on the seashore. The only difference is the picturesque valley that surrounds them, the well, the unique style of the sailors (as the men who work in the salt mines are known), the wooden houses and the country air that can be breathed.

The Roman bridge of Assentiz originally had two arches, but after a major flood in the 18th century, one of the sides gave way, leaving the bridge with only one arch. Analysing the way the stones in the arch area are placed, it is possible to conclude that this bridge is not in fact Roman, especially since it is now known that the Roman road did not pass through here. The bridge was part of the royal road built by order of Queen Maria I at the beginning of the 18th century, which followed the route of the old Roman road for most of its route. This royal road facilitated access to the region, allowing the flow of its products and also the passage of the mail carrier (transport of mail and people) that had a change point in Alto da Serra. The bridge is in urgent need of refurbishment and consolidation works. There is currently a bridge adjacent to it to connect Assentiz and Arrouquelas.

Swing built next to Alcanede Castle. It stands out for its location and superb view towards the south.

Alcanede Castle is located in the parish of the same name, in the municipality and district of Santarém, Portugal. It is believed that the earliest human occupation of the site dates back to a prehistoric castrum, fortified at the time of the Roman occupation and later reinforced and expanded. At the time of the Christian Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula it was taken by Count D. Henrique (1091) and later recovered by the Moors. Its definitive possession was obtained from the conquest by King D. Afonso Henriques (1112-1185), in the context of the conquests of Santarém and Lisbon. Its first mayor was D. Gonçalo Mendes de Sousa, chief butler of D. Afonso Henriques, who was responsible for rebuilding and expanding the walled enclosure and populating and organizing the town, before 1163. The 1531 earthquake shook its structure, marking the beginning of its decline. With no military function or strategic importance, there was no interest in repairing it, plunging it into abandonment and oblivion. At the beginning of the 1940s, it was subject to restoration work seeking to return it to its approximate form at the end of the Middle Ages, conserving it as a historical landmark in the region's landscape.

The Roman Bridge of Almoster, or Ribeira de Alcanede bridge, crosses Ribeira de Nede. Possibly built in the 3rd century, it is known for being on one of the oldest roads that connected the city of Santarém to Porto de Mós.

The monastery was founded in 1289 by D. Berengária Aires, maid of Queen Santa Isabel and wife of D. Rodrigo Garcia, in fulfillment of the testamentary wish of her mother, D. Sancha Pires. The works resulted from the joint initiative of the founder and the Holy Queen, the latter having ordered the construction of the cloister and the infirmary. After the completion of the works, the queen continued to express interest in the monastery, leaving it around a thousand pounds in her will. The date of completion of the works is unknown, only knowing that, when the founder died in 1210, they had not yet been completed. After the extinction of the religious orders, in 1834, the monastery was progressively abandoned, entering a phase of dilapidation and destruction of its rich heritage that would last until almost the middle of the 20th century. Still in 1910, the church was vandalized and robbed, with tiles, paintings and a portico that existed in the Chapter House missing. In the 50s of the 20th century, the state of degradation that the complex had reached led to the replacement of the vaulted roof of the central nave with the current wooden ceiling. The organ and the coat of arms on the main portico had already been dismantled, while the building attached to the church was transformed into a cowshed. Since then, the complex has been the subject of extensive restoration work, which seeks to restore, as much as possible, some of its original characteristics.

The Salinas de Rio Maior are located about 3 km from the city center and are located in a valley at the foot of the Serra dos Candeeiros, in the heart of the Serras de Aire e Candeeiros Natural Park. Classified as a Property of Public Interest since December 1997, these are the only inland salt pans in Portugal, and the only ones that are fully operational in Europe. The first reference to its existence dates from 1177, but it is thought that the use of rock salt would have been made since prehistoric times.