Gerês

Campo do Gerês

By Portugal Tourism

700 mts from Parque Cerdeira, in the heart of the Peneda-Gerês National Park, there is the village of Campo do Gerês, also known as São João do Campo. It is a traditional village, with narrow streets and granite houses, it is the house of the Ethnographic Museum of Vilarinho das Furnas, wich aims to preserve the memory of the village that was submerged by the construction of the dam, in 1972.

Rich in traditions and with magnificent examples of popular architecture, such as threshing floors, granaries and water mills, the village is located next to the impressive Mata da Albergaria, in the heart of the Natural Park. The road that connects Campo do Gerês to Caldas do Gerês, crossing the mountains, offers unforgettable views. In the surroundings, there is a Roman-medieval bridge and a milestone of the old Roman road that connected Braga to Astorga.

Vilarinho das Furnas Ethnograpic Museum

A visit to the traditions of the region and of the village submerged by the dam in the 60’s.

Ethnographic Museum where you will find artefacts, some of which are originals used by the people from the village of Vilarinho, before it was submerged!

Geira e Geira Romana Museum – I d.c.

One of the centres of the Núcleo Museológico is the interactive Museum of the Geira Romana, a testimony to the passage of the Romans through our lands.

“In the region of the Peneda-Gerês National Park, woven with granite and covered in green, bold mountain ranges and successive valleys merge and embrace each other. The impermeable granite favours the existence of many streams and countless waterlines and waterfalls, which wind up and down the slopes and finally flow into the rivers Vez, Lima, Homem and Cávado. Covered in green mantles made of vineyards and cornfields, offers unexpected and exuberant shapes of this land. The region of Gerês reveals the will and desire of the people who chose it as their home

Mata da Albergaria (Forest)

One of the most beautiful areas of the National Park, with an enormous diversity of flora, classified as a Biogenetic Reserve. A real treat for the eye any time of the year, but especially in autumn, when it gift us an explosion of colours.

Typical Villages

People settled on the slopes of the mountains and built their villages clinging to the ground. They divided the land, designed terraces, planted vineyards, olive and orange trees. They redirected the water lines and took advantage of the streams, creating an agropastoral economy that resists the erosion of modern times. They extracted granite from the hills and built their houses and villages positioned around the church or chapel. The people who live here have adapted nature to the needs of collective existence. They gave shape to a landscape that is recognisable and, gratefully, returns them their soul and an unique way of being.

Thermal baths | Lobios

45 minutes by car, crossing Mata de Albergaria towards Spain, through the border “Portela do Homem”, you will find in the middle of Xurés, the village of Torneiros, Lobios.

Here, you will find “Rio Caldo” (literally hot river), where the hot thermal waters are, in the open air. A great place to enjoy during the day or even at night, especially in the cold days.

Gastronomy

Cerdeira Restaurant, situated in the entrance for the Campsite, allowing access to non-users, where you can taste traditional delicacies, some are seasonal as there are not always the right ingredients for their confection. At our table the meat of the region is queen but, there are other equally tasty options.

Meat, Codfish, Bersame, Kid, Home bred chicken … so many delicacies!

Flora

Peneda-Gerês National Park (PNPG), is a natural live museum, it is home to plant species that are unique on the continent, such as the Gerês lily and the Gerês fern. In the highland areas,with traces of post-glacial flora, there are species of alpine formations, such as juniper and erva-divina (Armeria welwitschii), accompanied by the common yew, the birch or the silver birch. The slopes subject to the Atlantic influence are covered with pyrenean oak, common oak and common holly.

But the climatic variety of the PNPG also allows for the existence of typically Mediterranean vegetation. It is on the hottest and most sheltered slopes and valleys that the cork oak, the strawberry tree and the Portuguese laurel emerge exuberantly. In addition there is also medicinal and aromatic flora, in the form of herbs, shrubs or small trees. The most important are the cranberry, the carqueja (Genista tridentata), the kernes oak, the herb Robert, the midland hawthorn, the hypericum or St. John’s wort, the camomile, the mallow and the wild strawberry.

Fauna

Living in a state of freedom, in a semi-wild regime, the Garrano from Gerês is a rare species in the world. Even today, it still walks through part of the Gerês Mountain, cohabiting with other mammals. Of these, the Corso (small dear), the wolf, the fox, the genet, the otter and the iberian desmon are the ones that deserve to be highlighted. On the other hand, some birds of prey can be seen in the highlands: the golden eagle (almost extinct), the common buzzard, the booted eagle, the red kite and the eagle-owl. On the ground, a great diversity of reptiles: black adder, water snake, montepellier snake and spiny footed lizard. As well as amphibians: gold dtriped salamander, boscas’s newt and palmate newt.