Chão das Eiras

Chão das Eiras is a small locality in the municipality of Tomar, in the Santarém district. Its name means floor of the threshing grounds or floor of the eiras, where eira refers to the traditional stone threshing floor used for drying and threshing cereal grain after harvest. The name suggests that this flat terrain above the forested hillsides was historically used for agricultural processing.

The locality sits at the transition between the wooded hillside terrain below and the open limestone plateau that begins here on the approach to the Serra de Aire. The landscape opens considerably at this elevation, with scrub, grass, and the exposed limestone characteristic of the serra beginning to appear.

For pilgrims on the Camino Português, Chão das Eiras marks an important transition point: the landscape shifts here from dense woodland to the open, windswept plateau of the Serra de Aire.