Santo Estêvão - Samora Correia - Benavente

We finish reinforcing our supplies in the small Mercado de Santo Estevão market, in the central street, as we have ahead a quest of 15 km until Samora Correia, through the middle of the endless marsh of the Almansor river. If a hot day is foreseeable, it is advisable to do this stage in the early morning. The temperature can reach unbearable levels, and the only shadow we will find will be the one projected by the motorway viaduct under which we'll have to pass.

At the end of the street is the old church Igreja de Santo Estevão. Before arriving there, next to the wall of a white and blue manor house, we cross the indicated door and access the dirt track of Monte Novo de Santo Estevão property, crossing the river. We follow the Path to the right, passing through the estate’s agricultural facilities, until we find a wicket door on the property’s fence, giving access to the domains of Companhia das Lezírias. From here there is no doubt. We must continue straight ahead on the main road, through the middle of the partially flooded marsh, with the exclusive company of flocks of a diversity of birds. Somewhere, hidden in the middle of the vegetation of a strategic hill on the left bank, is the Fortim de S. João Baptista de Belmonte blockhouse, an outpost of the Knights of Santiago, dated 1207 Finally, the marsh curves to the right and the Path too, going straight to the street that accesses the suburbs of Samora Correia, an old and prosperous village and hunting area for the nobility, dedicated to D. Paio Peres Correia, Grand Master of the Order of Santiago. We walk along the Estrada do Brejo and, after Rua do Trabalho, we find the Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Oliveira church, where we admire the iconography, the frescoes and azulejo panels dedicated to Saint James’ life in Portugal. In the same square of Portuguese cobbled pavement is the old Palácio do Infantado, from the 17th century which, after being burnt, was adapted into a museum and library. We leave the city through Rua do Povo Livre and, in the end, we continue on the left until we reach the Sorraia riverbank, which we’ll follow until Benavente, arriving by the north entrance, at Rua Dr. Manuel Velho Cabral Calheiros. On the left, we discover traces of the walls that used to protect the village from the river floods, and the Cruz do Calvário (Calvary’s Cross), from 1644. A few meters ahead, we discover a niche with the image of Santiago and the Order’s Cross, in the Fountain of Santiago. We finish this stage in the square of the Municipality of Benavente, next to which are the Tourism services.