{"id":1149,"date":"2020-03-09T12:49:13","date_gmt":"2020-03-09T12:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/?p=1149"},"modified":"2020-03-09T12:52:27","modified_gmt":"2020-03-09T12:52:27","slug":"a-trip-to-northeast-portugal-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/?p=1149","title":{"rendered":"A trip to Northeast Portugal – part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A few days ago, I returned from a trip to Northeast Portugal,\nparticularly to the region of Vila Nova de Foz C\u00f4a (VNFC). It was a family\nvacation trip, that I had been planning for some time; finally, during the\nCarnival holyday break, we managed to go there for a few days. I have family\nroots in VNFC, as my grandparents were from there, and I used to visit for\nvacations when I was a child. The trip was split into several days:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 1 \u2013 drive to VNFC (around 400 km), of course with a few\nstops along the way, in medieval villages (Belmonte and Marialva).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 2 \u2013 visit the Upper Paleolithic rock art sites in the\nregion, which since 1998 have been classified by UNESCO as a World Heritage\nsite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 3 \u2013 drive from VNFC to Freixo de Espada a Cinta (FEC),\nvisiting a few other old villages along the way, such as Castelo Melhor,\nAlmendra, and Castelo Rodrigo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 4 \u2013 drive back home, in part along route 222, that\nfollows the Douro river and its many vineyards. A landscape that is also\nclassified as World Heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The entire trip.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This region of Portugal is extremely rich in history, with\nnumerous cultural and landscape places to visit. It is characterized by several\nmountain chains that surround the Douro and C\u00f4a rivers and is close to the\nborder with Spain. During February and March, the almond trees are in bloom,\nadding a beautiful character to the landscape. We were lucky that in many\nplaces, these trees were still in bloom; it is quite an experience to see the\nsteep hills covered with the white blossoms. When the wind is strong enough,\nthe flowers falling from the trees resemble snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, I made a lot of photos, who wouldn\u2019t right? I\nthought it better then to split this piece into several parts, following the\nseveral days, as indicated above. I will start with the first day of the trip,\nwhere the highlights were the medieval villages of Belmonte and Marialva.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belmonte is located near Serra da Estrela, the highest\nmountain in continental Portugal, in the Beira Baixa province. As many other\nvillages in the region, Belmonte\u00b4s history goes back to very early times of\nPortugal\u2019s foundation as a country. In fact, the establishment of Belmonte as a\nvillage was granted by king D. Sancho in the year 1211. Today, there are many\ninteresting sites to visit, like the castle and medieval Jewish neighbourhood.\nThis is also the birthplace of Pedro \u00c1lvares Cabral, who discovered Brasil in\nthe year 1500. Arriving there at lunch time, we had a picnic and did some\nsightseeing around the castle and old town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Belmonte – castle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Belmonte – general view.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From Belmonte we kept driving North, towards VNFC, enjoying the nice sunny weather and the mountainous landscape. A few km before VNFC, lies another medieval village, Marialva. I remember stopping here when I was a kid, and even today Marialva is an invitation to a child\u2019s imagination about knights and castles. The whole village is enclosed inside the castle walls. Its history goes back to Roman times, after which the Goth tribes occupied the region. In the year 1063 it was conquered by D. Fernando Magno and received its present name. The first king of Portugal, D. Afonso Henriques, granted it village charter and status (\u201cforal\u201d) in 1179. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Location of Marialva.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This entire region near Spain has seen quite a number of\nindependence wars, and was never very populated. The first kings, attempting to\nattract people to the interior and sustain the conquered lands, offered\nincentives to the villages \u2013 granting permission to hold markets and offering\nlands. It is quite telling that today, in the XXI century, the current\ngovernment is still granting incentives to attract people to the interior\u2026 some\nthings never change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeing Marialva\u2019s castle at the top of the hill, surrounded\nby farms, is a very nice sight. It is possible to stop the car at the entrance\nof the village and visit it. Of course, the mandatory thing to do is to walk\naround and inside the ramparts. There are not may inhabitants today, and the\nfew that we met were old people \u2013 this is a common thing in these small\ninterior villages. The view from the castle over the surround landscape is\nbeautiful, encompassing many kilometres in all directions, with mountain ranges\nand farmlands covered in fruit trees and granitic boulders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We found a couple of old ladies that were selling some local\nproducts, including almonds and olive oil. I remember being a kid and breaking the\nalmond shells in my grandparent\u2019s house. I bought a bag of almonds, which are\nvery good. After visiting Marialva, I left with the feeling that I was exiting\na time machine. The eery silence at the top of the ramparts is a stark witness\nto the isolation of the place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Marialva – view from the road.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Marialva – pillory square.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Marialva – castle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Marialva – old friends.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After a few more kilometres, we finally arrived in VNFC, where we settled for the night. Not before doing a bit of walking around, bringing back childhood memories. The historical centre includes the church, pillory, and town hall. The first charter was granted by King D. Dinis in 1299. On the northern exit of the town, by the side of the road, is wrth to stop and admire the view towards the Douro valley. We rested there until sunset, simply admiring the view. The next day was going to be very full, with the visits to some of the pre-historic rock art sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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VNFC – looking North.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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VNFC – pillory and town hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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VNFC – church.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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VNFC – almond blossoms.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days ago, I returned from a trip to Northeast Portugal, particularly to the region of Vila Nova de Foz C\u00f4a (VNFC). It was a family vacation trip, that I had been planning for some time; finally, during the Carnival holyday break, we managed to go there for a few days. I have family … Continue reading A trip to Northeast Portugal – part 1<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1149"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1149"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1218,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1149\/revisions\/1218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulobizarro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}