Journey to Portugal by José Saramago

If cities were given nicknames, as once upon a time they were by royalty, the traveller would feel bound to propose that Portalegre be given the sobriquet of "a place well surrounded". In 1259 King Afonso III must have had his reasons to order the building here of Portus Alacer, which gave rise to Portalegre, porto alacre, porto alegre [the port of happiness]. Surrounded by countryside and woodland, its buildings so neatly divided off from the surrounding wild landscape, we can well understand how José Règio wrote and repeatedly rewrote:

In Portalegre, a city Of the high Alentejo, ringed With mountain ranges, winds, cliffs, olive groves and Spanish oaks.