A sunny winter day in Beja. A perfect day for an afternoon out with our kid.

Beja is a city and a municipality in the Alentejo region, Portugal. The population in 2011 was 35,854,[1] in an area of 1146.44 km².[2] The city proper had a population of 21,658 in 2001.[3]

The municipality is the capital of the Beja District.

Situated on a 277 metres (909 ft) hill, commanding a strategic position over the vast plains of the Baixo Alentejo, Beja was already an important place in antiquity. Already inhabited in Celtic times,[5] the town was later named Pax Julia by Julius Caesar in 48 BCE, when he made peace with the Lusitanians. He raised the town to be the capital of the southernmost province of Lusitania (Santarém and Braga were the other capitals of the conventi). During the reign of emperor Augustus the thriving town became Pax Augusta. It was already then a strategic road junction.

The climate in Beja (the hottest district capital city in Portugal) is influenced by its distance from the coast. Although mild by European standards, Beja has relatively cool winters compared to coastal Portugal, while summers are long and hot.

Jardim Gago Coutinho e Sacadura Cabral – 1880
Jardim público