Discover Portugal
Discover Portugal’s Center, from “Portas do Rodão” to the heart of Serra da Gardunha: The Blossom Cherries.
This route offers us an experience of scenic value, not only of whims and strength of nature, but also of man’s persistence in preserving traditions of ancient times. After quartzite mountains and the hardness of granite, we are dazzled by the beauty and fragility of cherry blossom.
Discover Portugal's Center
Discover one of the most scenic areas of center Portugal, Vila Velha de Ródão, ray village in the district of Castelo Branco. Its historical importance comes from an ancient defensive function and later from its port.
We find the “ex-libris” of this region located on both river banks, in Vila Velha de Ródão and Nisa. A stream, excavated between two imposing quartzite mountains, considered a natural monument in 2009, by the Institute for Nature Conservation and Biodiversity: “Portas de Ródão.”
Discover Portugal’s local culture
The river waters, now tamed by the Fratel dam, flow calmer than in the past when sirgas (old walls) supported river navigation to the Tagus harbor. It is also possible to see the typical picareto (rowing boat) that carried products and passengers through what was the only way of communication for many centuries.
Colored scarps according to seasons by the heather flower, broom, and cistus, are covered with scrubland (strawberry trees, juniper, lentisco, myrtle, and other species). As a result, this area gives shelter to very diverse and rare avifauna, such as black storks, griffon vultures (the largest colony in the country), eagles, and the royal owl.
Discover a region of Portugal named by some scientists as the “last ecological paradise in Portugal.” Due to the mild climate and orography, plants, animals, men choose this place to live. As for men’s presence, CIART (Centro de Interpretação de Arte Rupestre do Tejo) disseminates different cultural expressions of prehistoric inhabitants in this region of Portugal through an exhibition.
