Full article about Campo Maior: 400,000 paper petals cloak the Alentejo
Every four years Campo Maior’s whitewashed lanes vanish beneath hand-tissue blooms
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Paper Village
From January to August every fourth year, Campo Maior swaps whitewash for origami. Eight hundred townspeople—teachers, bakers, retired artillerymen—sit in circles snipping 400,000 tissue-petal blooms, then brush them onto every façade with a paste of flour and water until 25,000 m² of terracotta and stone vanish beneath colour. Three days later the rain washes it all away; the town returns to its default glare of white until 2027.
Taste charter
- Norte Alentejano DOP olive oil: sip the late-harvest, almond-fruity coupage at the Campo Maior co-op (Mon–Fri 09:00–12:30, 14:00–17:30).
- Preserved olives: scored, cracked or cracked-and-spiced; buy by the kilo at the Wednesday & Saturday morning market.
- Tolana Mestiço IGP sheep-goat cheese: buttery, peppery, only made at Quesaria D’el Rei, 3 km out on the N18 towards Elvas.
Arrival
Exit 8 of the A6 drops you 19 km east of Elvas. Public transport doesn’t. White-marked parking bays are free; during the paper festival every bed within 20 km is booked six months ahead.
Live index
Population 3,684; elevation 211 m; health centre open 24 h; cinema dark since 2019. Ten legal rentals. Café Correia pulls espresso at 65 ¢ from 06:30.