nued for long in their own Eastern ways of building
and of agriculture.

It is especially in and about the town of Evora that this is seen, and
that too although the cathedral built at the end of the twelfth century
is, except for a few unimportant details, a Western building.

[Sidenote: Alvito.]

But more completely Eastern than any one building at Evora is the castle
at Alvito, a small town some thirty or forty miles to the south-west.
The town stands at the end of a long low hill and looks south over an
endless plain across to Beja, one of the most extensive and, in its way,
beautiful views in the country.

At one end of the town on the slope of the hill stands the castle, and
not far off in one of the streets is the town hall whose tower is too
characteristic of the Alemtejo not to be noticed. The building is
whitewashed and perfectly plain, with ordinary square windows. An
outside stair leads to the upper story, and behind it rises the tower.
It, like the building, is absolutely plain with semicircular openings
near the top irregularly divided by a square pier. Close above these
openings is a simple cornice on which stand rather high and narrow
battlements; within them rises a short eight-sided spire, and at each
corner a short round turret capped by a conical roof. The whole from top
to bottom is plastered and whitewashed, and it is this glaring whiteness
more than anything else which gives to the whole so Eastern a look.

As to the castle, Haupt in his most interesting book, _Die Baukunst der
Renaissance in Portugal_, says that, though he had never seen it, yet
from descriptions of its plan he had come to the conclusion that it was
the castle which, according to Vasari, was built by Andrea da Sansovino
for Dom Joao II. Now it is well known that Sansovino was for nine years
in Portugal and did much work there, but none of it can now be found
except perhaps a beautiful Italian door in the palace at Cintra; Vasari
also states that he did some work in the heavy and native style which
the king liked. Is it possible that the castle of Alvito is one of his
works in this native style?

Vasari says that Sansovino built for Dom Joao a beautiful palace with
four towers, and that part of it was decorated by him with paintings,
and it was because Haupt believed that this castle was built round an
arcaded court--a regular Italian feature, but one quite unknown in
Portugal--that he thought it must be Sansovino's lost pal