Monsanto: the Most NON-typical Portuguese Village


In the medieval Monsanto Village. Portugal.

In 1938, the Portuguese gave the village of Monsanto the title of “the most Portuguese village of Portugal.” It is strange. During this visit to Portugal, we drove about 1.500 km exploring the historic places of Idanha-a-Velha and other central provinces of Portugal, and never saw anything similar to this “typical” Portuguese village. All other Portuguese villages and towns, at least in these regions, are made of white stone from roofs to sidewalks.

Monsanto Village is unique both for Portugal and Europe. The village seems not to have changed since medieval times. It is a museum like the Belgian town Bruges. I’d say this is the most NON-typical village in Portugal.

One of the streets of the medieval Monsanto Village. Portugal.

In the medieval Monsanto Village. Portugal.

The houses between boulders in the village of Monsanto. Portugal.

Monsanto means “sacred mountain.” Here, Mother Nature played with the landscape a lot and as a result we were left with very unearthly scenery with giant stones lying here and there. It’s safe to say that nature, rather than man, did some work on the construction of houses. Thanks to these boulders, you often had a ready-made wall or two of your future house and sometimes a roof too. All that was left to do was to build the missing walls. It came out very picturesque, solid, and inexpensive.

Since people used the same type of stones, only smaller, for the building of their houses, the village almost looks as if it grew into the boulders on its own like a plant sprouting small stones to fill in the gaps between the big ones. Trolls from fairy tales could live in such houses, not people. Probably, because of that, some parts of the village look as though they have been taken directly from fantasy films. I am sure you could make one of the series of Lord of the Rings right in Monsanto Village without extra set decorations. Read more on Victor Travel Blog...

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