ELVAS  , an episcopal

city and frontier fortress of Portugal, in the district of Portalegre and formerly included in the province of Alemtejo; 170 M . E. of Lisbon, and lo m . W. of the Spanish fortress of Badajoz, by the Madrid-Badajoz-Lisbon railway . Pop . (1900) 13,981 . Elvas is finely situated on a hill 5 M . N.W. of the river Guadiana . It is defended by seven bastions and the two forts of Santa Luzia and Nossa Senhora da Graca . Its late Gothic cathedral, which has also many traces of Moorish influence in its architecture, dates from the reign of Emmanuel I . (1495–1521) . A fine aqueduct, 4 M. long, supplies the city with pure water; it was begun early in the 15th century and completed in 1622 . For some distance it includes four tiers of super-imposed arches, with a total height of 120 ft .

The surrounding lowlands are very fertile, and Elvas is celebrated for its excellent

olives and plums, the last-named being exported, either fresh or dried, in large quantities . Brandy is distilled and pottery manufactured in the city . The fortress of Campo Maior, 10 m . N.E., is famous for its siege by the French and relief by the British under Marshal Beresford in 1811—an exploit commemorated in a ballad by Sir Walter Scott . Elvas is the Roman Alpesa or Helvas, the Moorish Balesh, the Spanish Yelves . It was wrested from the Moors by Alphonso VIII. of Castile in 1166; but was temporarily recaptured before its final occupation by the Portuguese in 1226 . In 1570 it became an episcopal see . From 1642 until modern times it was the chief frontier fortress S. of the Tagus; and it twice withstood sieges by the Spanish, in 1658 and 1711 .