Cromeleque do Xerez

Category: Archaeology > Cromlech

District: Évora > Reguengos de Monsaraz > Monsaraz > Telheiro

Location

The Cromeleque do Xerez is located in the Telheiro area, in the locality of Monsaraz, within the municipality of Reguengos de Monsaraz. It is situated in an elevated plain, providing a vast and open environment, characteristic of the Alentejo landscape. Its current position, near the Convento da Orada, offers a tranquil and accessible setting.

A Window to the Past

This remarkable megalithic monument, identified in 1969, dates back to a period between the early 4th and mid-3rd millennium BC. It is a testament to human presence and beliefs in very ancient times, classified as a Property of Public Interest. It represents one of the few cromlechs that can still be appreciated in Portuguese territory, offering a direct link to the ancestral communities that inhabited this region.

The Uniqueness of Its Shape

The Cromeleque do Xerez is distinguished by its layout, which adopts a quadrangular shape, somewhat unusual when compared to the oval or ellipsoidal tendency of many other Alentejo cromlechs. It is composed of about fifty granite menhirs, with heights varying approximately between 1.20m and 1.50m. At its center stands a main menhir, about four meters high and phallic in shape, which features a set of small depressions, known as "covinhas" (cup-marks), on its western face. Other menhirs in the ensemble also display engraved decorations, such as circles and lines.

The Legacy of a Relocation

The history of this cromlech is marked by a unique event: it was the only megalithic monument in the area to be transferred due to the construction of the Alqueva Dam. Disassembled in 2001 and reinstalled in its current location in 2004, this process aimed to safeguard its heritage from the submersion of its original site. This relocation allowed its stones to continue telling their story, although the landscape that now surrounds it is different from the one that witnessed its original creation.

Ancestral Symbols and Rituals

It is estimated that the Cromeleque do Xerez would have served as a site with a ceremonial and ritualistic purpose, possibly associated with fertility cults and the cyclical regeneration of life. Its arrangement, with the peculiarity of its quadrangular layout and the central menhir, suggests a connection to astronomical observations and solar cycles, such as solstices and equinoxes. The presence of stones that were once millstones, transformed into symbolic elements, reinforces the idea of a deep connection of these Neolithic communities with the land and its productive cycles.

License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.pt