Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
This lovely little town of 70 souls, situated in the eastern half of the park, is entirely un-
fazed by the Spanish-Portuguese border splicing it down the middle. It's interesting not
just for its rustic stone buildings, whose ground floors still house straw-filled stables for
goats, sheep and donkeys, but also for its staunch maintenance of the communal lifestyle
once typical of the region. Spend an afternoon here and you'll see elderly locals trundling
wheelbarrows from the well- tended community gardens surrounding town, pitchforking
hay onto horse-drawn carts, stopping in at the local cafe whose communally shared pro-
ceeds are used to fund town festivals, or trading jobs with each other - one cousin staying
to mind the store while the other goes to bring in the sheep. The twinned village also has
one other claim to fame - a hybrid Portuguese-Spanish dialect known as Rionorês.
The border runs east-west through the middle of the village, while the Rio de Onor
trickles along perpendicular to it. The road from Bragança continues north through town
into Spain, branching right just before the border to cross an old stone bridge to the pretti-
est part of the village, where you'll find the community cafe.
From Bragança, STUB bus 5 (€1.20, 45 minutes) heads to Rio de Onor three times
daily.
Montesinho
Hidden at the end of the road in a narrow valley wedged between forbidding granite
heights, this tiny village is one of the park's best-preserved, thanks to a program to restore
old dwellings and stop construction of new ones. The village is also the jumping-off point
for the 8km
Porto Furado hiking trail
through the rugged hills to a nearby dam. STUB bus 7
(€1.20, one hour) runs from Bragança to Montesinho at least once daily.
VILLAGE
Dine & Moimenta
Dine and Moimenta, two of the prettiest villages in the western half of the park, are con-
nected by a high-altitude road with panoramic views of the windmill-speckled hills along
the Spanish border. In well-preserved Dine, you can visit a tiny
archaeological museum
, which
documents the 1984 find by a Danish diplomat of Iron Age remains in a nearby cave. The
museum is usually locked, but just ask around and someone will rustle up the French-
speaking caretaker, Judite, who may also lead you around to the cave itself - pointing out
traditional lime kilns and wild-growing medicinal herbs along the way.
Moimenta has a lovely core of granite houses roofed in terracotta, plus a small baroque
church - a rare dose of luxury in this austere corner of Portugal. The pretty 7km
Calçada
VILLAGES
