Episode 30

Episode 30
At the southern end of a flat sandy peninsular is the little town of Sao Jacinto, as villages go its not much, it does however have a very nice wide sandy beach facing the Atlantic Ocean with some low grassy dunes. The wild gray surf was crashing on the beach when we went for a look. From what we could see it looks as if there may be a life guard on duty here during the summer months.
The road follows the edge of the lagoon and there are some large flash looking houses facing this none too attractive outlook. It’s got muddy marshy shores where we watched some people in small boats dig for some sort of shell fish. Using a pole 5 to 6m long with a rake and a net on the end they would push it out into the water, work the rake back and forth in the mud, then haul it in so that the net collected what the rake dislodged from the mud. Not very much usually, though at another point a bit further along small bags of shell fish were being loaded from the boats into a small refrigerated truck. David said they look to be whelks, but as I don’t know what a whelk looks like I can’t give an opinion.
In the town of Santa Maria de Feira we saw a castle that stands on a hill overlooking the town. It has a couple of towers and high fortified walls. There are underground passages that connect the different parts of the battlements and a long straight Roman road that leads from it up and over the hills beyond. Not that we could see much through the misty rain. At least it wasn’t cold here.
Now we headed back inland to the town of Arounce. Here we saw the old convent where there is an organ in the church that has 1352 notes and is occasionally played by a visiting expert. We could only look at it through a gap in a curtained petition as that part of the church was all closed off.
We drove up into the Serra da Arada (mountains) through more pine and eucalypt forest. It should have been a trip with brilliant view over the mountains and valleys but the fog filled the valleys and over much of the mountains too: In just a couple of places we saw pretty small villages clinging to mountain sides with all about them small terraces on which grapes and citrus are growing; and on the surrounding hills, pine forest. Looming through the fog on the high tops are several new wind turbines, they were working despite the quite gentle breeze blowing. Workmen were preparing base for another one.
Two stone huts beside a water channel both had horizontal water wheels in them, neither were working but it wouldn’t take a lot of effort to get them back in working order, a third hut just a little higher up the hill no longer had its waterwheel but it did have a brand new stainless steel holding tank beside it, for what purpose who knows!
In Sao Pedro do Sul we saw another castle on the hill overlooking the town, but like the one yesterday it looks better from a distance than up close. Some way further on at the town of Celorico do Beira we crossed a little dry stone bridge that Napoleon had marched his troops across in the early 1800’s, probably at the same time he had his horses stabled in the church in Porto. Near here too we saw an ancient Visigoth burial ground. Here small graves have been dug out of the granite rock, the body was then placed in the grave and a granite slab, hewn from another rock, put over the top. There are 11 graves here, one of which is obviously that of a child. They date from the 8th or 9th century AD.
In the town of Trancoso there is another walled city and a small castle that was once occupied by the Knights Templar. Those fellows sure got around: The castle and city walls are in good order having been restored several times over the centuries the latest being in 1940. In fact most of this small old city in is good repair, except for an old ducal palace that was once the home of a Polish princess. About the main thing to see here though are the old houses that were the homes of the Jewish community that fled here from Spain. All of these houses have two doors, a large one that opens only onto the downstairs room that was for trade and a smaller one that leads to the top floor where the family lived. One such house has a Lion of Judea embossed on the outside wall, it is thought that this was the house of the Rabbi. Several other have small rough crosses scratched into the stone work above the door; this was done by the Inquisition to show that the family had converted to Christianity. Again it was a very clean old city.
I noticed that there is a number of very good quality shops in the commercial parts of this walled city and that they had taken over 2 or 3 of the small pokey little shops and combined them into one of a decent size. But with the low ceilings and small window display space they still feel somewhat confined.
Heading north towards the town of Villa Nova da Foz Coa we came into a very mountainous region yet again. Here the steep hills had to a large extent, been terraced from top to bottom. Many of these terraces are very new and in fact we saw them still under construction in a couple of places. Those new terraces have been planted with either olives or grapes. You can easily pick out the more modern terraces because they are longer and more even and follow the curve of the hill having been made with modern earth moving equipment. However, there are still quite a few large olive groves and vineyards that aren’t terraced; these mostly have older well established trees and vines.
We took a drive around some of the tiny back roads and passed through several villages that are just how I remember those I saw in 1970, and even these mountains seem somewhat familiar. It is really an extremely pretty area but the main thing we came here to see is the old stone carvings that were discovered here in the 1990’s at the time a large controversial dam was beginning construction. That construction was halted because of the discovery.
These petroglypths are believed to be up to 28000 years old, but not all of them are the same age. They are also one of the biggest sites ever to have been discovered in Europe, there are more than 100 different sites spread along this valley of the Coa River. All these sites are on open exposed schist surfaces, whereas all former discoveries of this kind of drawing have been in caves.
Three different techniques have been used to make the drawings. The one that is perhaps the hardest to see because it is so fine like a single pencil line is a very fine single stroke groove. It must have been made with an especially hard and sharp piece of flint to cut into the schist surface as it did. The second method is the thicker outline left by short sharp strokes; and the third is by tapping a sharp pointed piece of flint with a hammer, just as you would with a chisel. In fact one of these tools was found by an old fire place in the vicinity.
Our guide took us to a number of different rock faces and at each one only a small area of the surface has drawings, some are done over the top of the older ones. Considering the time span the weather seems to have had little effect on them though the rock has cracked and crumbled in some places so that parts of the drawings are missing. The surfaces the ancients carved on was the vertical face of the schist, whilst some carvings done in the 19th century are on the horizontal face and are deteriorating much more rapidly. The animals that are represented are horses mainly with some deer, goats and bulls, some are very large whilst others are very tiny drawings. I did read somewhere that there is also a drawing of a bison amongst these, an animal that has been extinct from Europe for a very long time.
One of Portugal’s top Port Wine producers is in this area and we considered going to have a look. Another couple that were on the petroglypths tour wanted to do so too, so they phoned up but there was no reply and the place turned out to be in a very difficult to get to location so we all gave the idea a miss.
On a high plateau we saw Castelo Rodrigo standing on a hill top overlooking the village below and a vast area of farmland all the way to the Spanish border. Inside the fortified walls there was once a palace from the 16th century. Not very much remains and most of that has been rebuilt: The whole place is floodlit and at night it is probably quite a site but not at this time of year. The Portuguese don’t waste electricity; they only use it when there are plenty of people around to appreciate it.
A short distance further on and there is another fortification on a hill top with a commanding view. This is the military fortifications of Almeida: Here there are some impressive gateways into the walled compound; there was once a moat too, and a couple of drawbridges. Inside the walls is the old barracks building now a row of flats with washing hanging under the arches, and not sprucely painted as in the brochure photo.
As we drive around this part of eastern Portugal we see more ruined castles; they seem to date from a similar period around the 12th century. Several contained palaces within: Roman bridges and roads are other things we keep seeing, oh, and old olive presses that are no longer used can often be found as a centre piece in a roundabout or town prac̨a
In the city of Guarda we were all set to have a look about, we parked the car and set out with map in hand and dressed in our wet weather gear as it was tipping with rain. After a long walk up hill all the way we eventually arrived in the old city centre and dam near got blown away. The maps and literature got wet and the wind blew them to bits. We got more from the tourist office but the same thing happened again.
The cathedral was about the only thing we actually saw, built of gray granite it has high flying buttresses topped with small turrets and a fringe of fleur de lis. Inside is very plain compared with all the other cathedrals and churches we’ve seen in Portugal, no gilded carvings here or highly decorative altars and chapels though there is an impressive sandstone carving on 4 tiers as an altar piece featuring the apostles and other religious scenes and topped with Christ on the Cross. Another interesting feature inside are two pillars with twisted columns, all the other pillars are made up of straight upright columns. These twisted columns also appear on the west door. I can’t remember ever having seen it before.
I am sure there were other things to see in this place but David was very cold and extremely cranky so I just gave up the battle with maps and the weather and we went and had a hot coffee and a lovely pastry before heading back to the car, putting the heater on and warming up.
In the smaller town of Belmonte yet another castle stands on the hill, in ruins naturally, but with a big crane that looks as if it’s maybe being used to reconstruct some of the ancient wall. I could be wrong: This is another town that had a large medieval Jewish community, but unlike most of the others even though these people appeared to convert to Christianity many secretly keep up their Jewish faith. After the revolution of 1974 that ended the dictatorshop they were once again allowed to openly practice their faith and now they have a new Synagogue here is this place. There must be quite a large Jewish community all through this area because they produce a Kosher wine and olive oil.
This town also has one other claim to fame; it is the birth place of Pedro Alvaras Cabral. Ok! Ok! I can hear you all asking just who the heck was he? Well my friends, he was the fellow who discovered Brazil. In fact if memory serves me correct, and it probably doesn’t, he was the one who sailed into Rio harbour and thought it was the mouth of a river hence naming it Rio de Janiero. Anyway this chap was the son of the prominent family here and was born in the castle. He and his family are entombed in the church just below the castle walls. This small church has some faded 15th and 16th century frescos too.
There is one tiny ski area in Portugal: Its in the Serra da Estrela National Park on the highest part at a place called Torre ( tower), its only 1993m above sea level so in the late 1800’s the king at the time had a square tower built there to bring the height up to a more impressive 2000m, what good that was going to do I really can’t say. It certainly isn’t an attractive addition.
With snow beginning at around 1400m there was quite a good covering up near the top and being a Saturday there were big crowds out and about making the most of the short snow season they get here. It had been sunny right up till we arrived then some cloud came over and we were wandering about in thick fog that drifted and almost cleared a couple of times. The snow was powdery in places where it was thick but where it was thin it had an icy crust and hundreds of people had small plastic toboggans and sleds and were having a great time sliding down icy slopes. Wherever there was enough snow to slide on whole families, including the dog were doing so.
Right on top of the mountain there are a number of small shops and the main things they sell are hams and cheeses, probably from this local area. Also on sale were woolly slippers as well as some other warm clothing and there were a couple of cafeterias. The one and only ski lift was doing good business with a continuous flow of people getting off at the top to ski back down, but we have no idea how far down it went as the fog was far too thick to see. As we drove down the west side of the mountain we saw a few ski hire places several kilometres from the lift area. Only had to drop a little in altitude too, and we were back in sunshine for a little while at least.
Headed east again to the Spanish border to another town with a thermal springs and public baths. As we headed in that direction the rain tipped down yet again, the fog persisted and the wind blew small branches all over the road. Then when we got there we found that the baths are closed to the end of the month. We called in to see the castle and village of Monsanto; it is built of granite rock and sits in amongst huge granite boulder but alas, the rain was so heavy and the fog so thick we could barely make out that we were in the village.
In the town of Oliveira do Hospital the church there has a huge lime tree in its yard. Its asleep at this time of year, this is not a citrus lime tree, but is still impressive. Its 25m high and 4m round the trunk, in summer it must provide great shade.
It’s really quite surprising how large some of these villages are. They seem quite small from a distance but when we arrive and drive through they turn out to be much larger. They all seem to have very narrow cobbled streets in the centre that doesn’t do the suspension any good at all. In many gardens I have seen persimmon trees loaded with bright orange fruit, and large loquat trees quite heavily in flower.
The old university city of Coimbra is a pleasant place with its steep narrow lanes leading up the hill past the old Cathedral to the University that sits right on the highest point overlooking all else.
This premier University of Portugal was established here in 1537; through the preceding 3 centuries it had been moved back and forth between here and Lisbon. During the 20th century many new buildings and facilities have been added most of which are in other parts of the city.
Perhaps the most interesting part of it to see is the old library. This is a magnificent building on the inside though it’s quite plain from the outside. With stone walls over 2m thick it keeps the temperature a fairly consistent 20˚C and this is necessary to preserve the books that are kept here. There are over 200,000 volumes that date as far back as the 16th century.
The inside is divided into 3 rooms with archways separating them. The books are lined on shelves all around the walls; floor to balcony, then from the balcony to the ceiling. Making a total wall height of about 7m or so: Above that it the cornice decorated with gold leaf and a frescoed ceiling in each room: There is also much carved and gilded decoration around the shelves and pillars. Several large intricately inlaid tables are on display, they are made of mahogany, rosewood, ebony, and jacaranda.
The shelves are make of oak and this provides some protection against insect infestation, but there is also another factor that helps keep the insects in check, it’s the bat colony that live in the hollow wooden pillars that look like stone. At night the bats come out and eat any insects that dare to be about. Special leather cloths are placed over the tables to protect them from the bats.
Another special room in this university is in the main building, it’s the “Room of cowls”; this is the room in which doctorates are awarded. Other major university functions are held here too. It has a lovely ceiling that is painted in small panels. No photographs were allowed in these buildings:
St Michaels Chapel stands next to the library and it has an impressive organ and a brightly painted ceiling that reminds me of some brightly painted plates that I’ve seen in many different places. Painted in bright blues and oranges on a white background on the rounded Romanesque ceiling: A baroque clock tower stands in the corner of the square overlooking all:
The new Cathedral was closed but we had a quick look in the old cathedral, it’s quite a plain Romanesque structure with the only thing of note being the large clam shells that hold the holy water. There are several of them spread around the place inside.
© Lynette Regan 14th January 2008