Stripped cork oaks along a highway.

Even if you've never visited Portugal, you've certainly handled its most widely-used product, and held some of it in your hand more times than you can remember. That product came from the gently rolling plains of Alentejo Province, Portugal's "breadbasket", a region covering a third of the country and fairly flat like North America's plains, which stretches from the Algarve as far north as Lisbon and the Tagus River. There farmers grow grains and raise sheep, pigs and fighting bulls, but their main crop comes from trees. You see, Portugal produces most of the world's cork, from the cork oak trees – evergreens with leaves, numbers painted on them, and a strange "naked" appearance – which dot the Alentejo landscape.

Through centuries of experience the Portuguese have mastered the art of conserving these unique resources throughout their 200 or more years of life. When trees reach about 25 years of age and every nine or 10 summers thereafter, the bark is stripped off, leaving only a thin inner layer for protection. Each tree produces several hundred pounds of valuable bark per harvest. When it is stripped away the date is painted onto the tree to ensure that the required time passes before they are stripped again. In factories at Silves and elsewhere the various layers are separated, the outermost layer being coarse and the innermost one increasingly fine, dense and airtight as the years go by. That's why cork can be found in so many forms – insulation, tiles, linoleum, floats, gaskets, bulletin boards, decorations, and of course in almost all the world's wine bottles. The trees are at least 40 years old before their inner layer is sufficiently airtight to be made into wine corks.

Evora's massive 13th century fortress cathedral.

Unlike the temperate Algarve, the Alentejo is a land of extremes. Average summer maximums are in the high 70sF (mid 20sC), and average winter lows are in the mid 40sF (8-9C), but summer temperatures of more than 102F (40C) have been recorded, as have winter lows slightly below freezing (but without snow).

Tourists usually think of it as a yawn-inspiring buffer zone between two main destinations – the sunny Algarve and the historic North. To some extent that's an accurate description, but it has some places worth visiting, and one which definitely deserves an extended visit, no matter which direction you're heading. I'm speaking of Evora, a walled UNESCO historic town built on a hill about 60 miles (100 km) east of Lisbon. It's often called "the museum city", because it contains artifacts going as far back as Caesar's time which for some reason were not harmed by the great 1755 earthquake that destroyed most of the historic buildings in the rest of the country. It's easily accessible by train, bus, and a new autoroute between Lisbon and Merida, Spain.

While driving there from Albufeira we had a most unusual experience. The tranquility of the open countryside was suddenly shattered by the deafening roar of a pair of camouflaged fighter-bombers heading northwest at high speed below radar height. We later learned that they had overflown the lowlands on the way to and from a secret mission in North Africa. 'Nuff said.

Evora was founded by the Romans about 59 BC, and became an important city, complete with baths and a Temple to Diana which is one of the most impressive Roman ruins in the country. The Visigoths eventually took over, only to be routed in 715 by the Moors, who were in turn defeated by the Christians in 1167. Although the town has spread far beyond its well-preserved 14th century walls, the historic centre, about half a square mile (100+ hectares) in size, contains interesting structures from all these periods.

Giraldo Square is a popular meeting place in Evora.

To my mind the most impressive is the 13th century gothic cathedral, Portugal's largest, with its Sacred Art Museum. While there are several other museums, the most frequent tourist destination is Saint Francis' Church, with its bone chapel, described in my earlier article about Gothic Portugal. The Jesuit College, built in 1559, is now the University of Evora. There are a few palaces too, including those of the explorer Vasco de Gama and various kings who made Evora their capital at different times. In Giraldo Square, there is a beautiful renaissance fountain, with an earlier one built by the Moors nearby. The very long (9 km, 5.5 mi) and impressive aqueduct built in the 16th century is perfectly preserved.

In Evora we were introduced to the system of 44 state-owned Pousadas. These range all the way from reasonably priced small town inns to palatial historic buildings and, depending on their location and season, a room costs from about €100 to 300 per night.

When we found that our chosen hotel in Evora would not be available we decided to splurge on the deluxe Pousada dos Loios, a 32-room, 500-year-old former monastery.

Entrance to the historic Pousada dos Loios.

Almost every piece of furniture there is an historical artifact. The cloisters have been transformed into an elegant dining room, with an adjoining lounge reminiscent of a posh private club. Guests sleep in the cells of former monks, some of whom may be among the ± 5,000 "reposing" in the bone chapel. To bring their relatively tiny accommodations into the 20th century every second cell has been converted into an en-suite bathroom. The only drawback was that the monks of old were quite short, so today you have to duck down to go through the low doorways. The furniture is original, with armoires and some beds elaborately hand-carved and inlaid with rare woods from around the world, while others are graced with elegant canopies. As for dining, the food was as superb as the surroundings, and of course the price reflected the quality! Overall, it was a great one-time extravagance.

After leaving Evora, rather than head straight to Lisbon we took a side trip to view the Knights Templars' abandoned 12th-century Almourol Castle, on an island in the Tagus. Then we were off to the once-glittering metropolis which had known splendour, followed in 1755 by tragedy and centuries of decline, and which is only now rediscovering itself as the worthy capital of a proud European nation.

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