The Most Portuguese Village

The title of ‘Most Portuguese Village in Portugal’ has been awarded only once. The winning village was Monsanto. The year was 1938.

The competition may have been part of the Salazar dictatorship’s propaganda machine, and Monsanto’s win may have had something to do with the town inviting the judges to be witnesses at a local wedding, but the record exists and Monsanto remains, officially, Portugal’s most Portuguese village.

While Monsanto is amazing, it’s probably the least typical village we’ve seen on our travels around the country. What makes it so unusual is that Monsanto has been built on, under and around a landscape of giant boulders.

The village is, literally, tucked into a steep hillside close to the Spanish border and overlooked by the remains of a 12th century Templar castle. What seems astonishing is that those boulders – and Monsanto along with them – haven’t rolled away down that hillside centuries ago.

Monsanto is located in Portugal's east, in about the middle of the country and close to the Spanish border

The name, Monsanto, means Holy Mountain (it's nothing to do with the industrial chemical company and genetically modified plants)

A walk through this village is like stepping back in time

It's as though nothing has changed in centuries

The houses in Monsanto have been built in and around the giant granite boulders

It made us think of the Flintstones' house in Bedrock!

 

 

 

Locals call this place the 'House of One Tile'

Here's the western elevation 🙂

And just in front of the house is the piggery with the grass roof

Pigs were an important part of the economy here

But these days, people who live in the upper village aren't allowed to keep pigs (lest their piggy smell offend tourists' delicate sensibilities)

There's a path leading from the village up to the fortified castle

 

And when you reach the top, the views are spectacular

On a clear day like this, you can see Spain

For the Templars, who built the fortress in the 12th century, it was a matter of just filling in the spaces between the boulders

 

The path back down to the village loops around to the east

And the views from this side as just as impressive

There are huge numbers of eucalypts in Portugal; they were introduced originally into swampy parts of the country, but in many parts now they've taken over

These giant boulders are known as the 'Balancing Rocks'

Monsanto is an extraordinary village; we're not sure if it's the country's most 'Portuguese Village' but we're really pleased to have had the chance to see it