Portugal

Portugal ends where Europe does. Cabo da Roca, west of Sintra, is continental Europe’s westernmost point, and the whole country faces the Atlantic. North of the Tagus the land is green and granite, with the vine terraces of the Douro and the Serra da Estrela, snowy in winter. South of it the Alentejo rolls away in wheat and cork oak to the ochre cliffs of the Algarve. Madeira and the volcanic Azores, both self-governing regions, lie far offshore.

Much of this corner of the peninsula was Roman Lusitania, and Muslim rulers held most of it from the eighth century. Afonso Henriques took the title of king in 1139 and captured Lisbon in 1147 with the help of passing crusaders. Vasco da Gama reached India by sea in 1498, and Cabral landed in Brazil in 1500. An earthquake in 1755 flattened much of Lisbon. The Carnation Revolution of April 1974 ended the dictatorship Salazar had built, and with it the colonial wars in Africa.

Fado, sung in the taverns of Alfama and in Coimbra, voices saudade, a longing for what is lost, and Amália Rodrigues carried it abroad. Camões set the voyages in verse in The Lusiads, and Fernando Pessoa wrote under dozens of invented names. Azulejo tiles cover churches and railway stations, and grilled sardines fill the streets at the June festivals. Port wine ages in Vila Nova de Gaia, cork is stripped from Alentejo oaks, and Volkswagen builds cars at Palmela.