The Terra de Basto on your doorstep

Monte Farinha rises to around a thousand metres, with the revered chapel of Nossa Senhora da Graça at its summit. It is a magical, captivating place, full of history and archaeological remains, of legends and traditions. A privileged spot for nature lovers and an emblematic reference for sport, it is an unmissable destination on the paths of faith and religion, and for Portuguese and international visitors alike.

The views are breathtaking, and the nature around them leaves anyone overwhelmed.

The Fisgas de Ermelo are the most emblematic site in the protected area of the Alvão Natural Park.

They form one of Europe’s largest waterfalls, with a drop of about 400 metres, set in quartzite rock roughly 480 million years old. It was the fracturing of that hard rock that let the Olo river cut — “enfisgar” — its way through, giving the most beautiful waterfall in mainland Portugal its popular name.

The site holds high scientific, educational and heritage value, along with a remarkable vocation for nature tourism. Fossil traces in these rocks, left by long-extinct marine organisms, can also be read as a kind of illustration of distant times when life existed only in the sea — set against the exceptional biodiversity the protected area is known for today.

The singular, wild beauty of the Fisgas de Ermelo draws tens of thousands of visitors every year, who leave with every sense awake and with the wish, and the promise, of returning many times over. Both above and below the falls there are natural pools of pure, crystalline water — known locally as “piocas” — that invite a cold swim.

In 2016 the PR3 Fisgas de Ermelo walking trail opened, bringing a closer, more detailed view of the main natural features of the Alvão Natural Park. Besides unusual perspectives on the waterfalls and chance encounters with the richness of the flora and fauna, it also lets anyone who wishes cross mountain villages and discover the modus vivendi of the local people.

A group of watermills built in the reign of King Dinis, the first king in our country — above all in the Entre-Douro-e-Minho — to encourage and develop the milling industry. Until then milling was done almost entirely by human or animal effort, crushing the grain first between two stones and then with pestle and mortar.

The invention of the water mill opened a new era in milling, an activity previously carried out by hand mill. These communal mills belonged to the King, and half their income was declared to be the Crown’s. Later they paid the King only a symbolic tax.

Moinhos de Rei today holds a pleasant leisure area, well suited to spending free time well and to enjoying the great natural beauty of the landscape it offers those who go there.

A Romanesque castle, once in the Terra de Basto, part of the castle-building movement that marked European territory between the 10th and 12th centuries.

Set on top of a hill, its structure has four notable defensive elements: the keep, the square tower, a single gate and the cistern.

Archaeological evidence has been found of the fortress being occupied between the 14th and 16th centuries. By then the structure was already in decline; in peacetime it was a mere symbol of administrative organisation and of the seigneurial power that governed the territory.

It was abandoned for good from 1717, when the elites left the small settlement of Basto and moved the seat of the municipality to the parish of Britelo, where Celorico de Basto stands today.