Roncão

How long to stay?

An afternoon is enough, and there's nothing to do here but rest. Roncão is a stage town because the route needs it, not because it has much to show. You arrive after 22.2 kilometres from Santiago do Cacém, the last good ten of them without services, and a few small, tiring hills at the end. After that the rule is: shower, eat, sleep. Tomorrow you have another 23.6 kilometres through the Serra de Grândola ahead of you.

Roncão in Ninja numbers

• 22.2 kilometres is the distance from Santiago do Cacém according to Camino Ninja, with 313 metres of ascent. An honest day's work.
• 10.4 kilometres lie between São Bartolomeu da Serra and Roncão. According to the regional guide, there are no services on this stretch.
• 2.6 kilometres beyond Roncão, a scallop shell, the sign of the Order of Santiago, stands on the cross at Cruz de João Mendes.
• 1649 is when a brother of Saint James was buried there, in a simple grave in the ground.

Arriving: through the valley of the Ribeira de Corona

Beyond São Bartolomeu da Serra it gets lonely. The way leads through the valley of the Ribeira de Corona, past cork oaks and strawberry trees and abandoned farms, which are called "montes" here. Walkers who have described this stretch met hardly anyone on the way and felt at the end of the world. You cross the Ribeira first on a new bridge, later, according to the guide, at a ford. A few small hills towards the end take a bit more out of you. Then you reach Roncão on the N120 national road. The guide's stage ends in front of the Solar dos Leitões.

Roncão lies on the Caminho Português Central do Sul and today belongs to the parish of São Francisco da Serra in the municipality of Santiago do Cacém.

In brief: a hamlet of the knights of Saint James

According to the regional guide, Roncão goes back to the Middle Ages and owes its origin to the Order of Santiago, the knightly order of the Apostle, which owned this part of the Alentejo for a long time. The hamlet has not written down more about itself, at least not where we were able to look. Its story of the Order is better told 2.6 kilometres further on, in Cruz de João Mendes.

Honestly

• Roncão is tiny. We found no sight in the village. If you arrive here, you arrive to sleep.
• No pilgrim bed. There is no hostel. You sleep in private country accommodation in the village and the surrounding area, and you should book it beforehand. Finding a bed on the spur of the moment is a matter of luck here.
• The way out is ugly. Tomorrow morning you set off on a poor asphalt road, hear traffic noise, pass under the IC33 expressway and see rubbish at the roadside. The beautiful part only comes afterwards, in the Serra.
• The ford before Roncão. The guide sends you once through the Ribeira de Corona. Expect wet feet, especially after rain.

Where pilgrims sleep

There is no pilgrim hostel in Roncão. The guide sends pilgrims to the village's private holiday and country houses, and our data too lists only such accommodation, some of it a little outside the village. Book beforehand and ask straight away whether there's something to eat in the evening.

Ninja tips

• Shop in São Bartolomeu da Serra. According to the guide there are shops and cafés there, and then nothing until Roncão. If you also ask there for a stamp: walkers got theirs in the café of the residents' association.
• Suckling pig is the thing here. The Solar dos Leitões at the end of the stage is known for its suckling pig, and walkers who arrived here were served it in the evening.
• Sundays get tight. Walkers who set off from Roncão on a Sunday found only a single café open.
• Stop at the shell. In Cruz de João Mendes, take two minutes for the cross in front of the church.

Onward: through the tunnel into the Serra de Grândola

You leave Roncão on a side road, pass under the IC33 and after 2.6 kilometres reach Cruz de João Mendes. Then you follow the Rua da Eira onto a gravel track beside a motorway that was never finished. According to the guide, after about two and a half kilometres you turn left through an abandoned concrete tunnel into the Serra de Grândola. After that the way gets prettier, and the waymarks of the long-distance path GR11-E9 run alongside the Jakobs arrows. After 11.4 kilometres you pass through Santa Margarida da Serra, and after 23.6 kilometres you reach Grândola. According to Camino Ninja, it's 392 metres of descent on the way. Camino Ninja describes the way through the Alentejo together with Turismo do Alentejo e Ribatejo.

What awaits you tomorrow

Grândola, the town from the song. Before you come down, you climb through dense cork-oak forest to the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Penha de França on the top of the Serra, with a view over the town. Down below, Grândola tells you how a song could usher in a revolution.

Deep dive: A shell on a cross

A short read, in case you want to learn more about Roncão. About 2 minutes' reading.

A stop the route needs

Between Santiago do Cacém and Grândola lie almost forty-six kilometres, and in between there is no place that imposes itself. So the regional guide splits the route at Roncão, a hamlet on the old national road. When you sit here in the evening, you are sitting in a place that is a stage town mainly because of the kilometres.

The knights of the Apostle

And yet Roncão is no random place on your way. According to the guide it goes back to the Middle Ages and owes its origin to the Order of Santiago. The knights of Saint James held large parts of the Alentejo for centuries, from Santiago do Cacém to Alcácer do Sal. Anyone walking north on this way is walking through their old land.

The brother in Cruz de João Mendes

It becomes clearest the next morning. Just over two and a half kilometres beyond Roncão lies Cruz de João Mendes, a cork-producing place on the old road between Santiago do Cacém and Grândola. Perhaps, the guide suspects, it began at a wayside cross. Here André Luís Beltrão had himself buried, a brother of Saint James who died in 1649. He wanted no tomb, just a simple grave in the ground. The cross in the churchyard still carries a scallop shell today, as a sign that this place once stood under the protection of the Order.

What Roncão gives you to take along

Roncão has no glamour, and you needn't hold that against it. It is a bed between two towns, a meal, a night. Tomorrow morning you pass the shell, under which a brother of the Apostle has lain for almost four hundred years. He wished for a modest grave. A modest place is not a bad start to a pilgrim's day.