The Igreja Matriz de Nossa Senhora da Assunção de Alvito, as it is officially known, was built in the late 13th or early 14th century and was dedicated to Santa Maria de Alvito at the time. Between 1485 and 1535, it underwent extension work, with almost all of the walls being knocked down.
Archaeologist Jorge Feio assures us that “it is still possible to see architectural elements from the first phase.
The extension is identical to the Igreja Matriz de Viana do Alentejo, so it may have been designed by the same architects (the Arrudas family, architects of the Court)”.
Dom João Fernandes da Silveira, the first Baron of Alvito (and of Portugal), is buried in this church.
Its greatest wealth is fundamentally in its interior, through the gilded carved altars (the one on the main altar was placed between 1692 and 1705) and the tiles: those in the main chapel were placed before 1625, and others, “Persian carpet type”, some of them using only yellow and white, “very rare”, which decorate the body of the church, dating from 1647.