Arcos De Valdevez: Nature, Culture and Hiking Trails

Arcos De Valdevez combines impressive natural experiences with an exceptionally rich cultural history. The town is ideal for you if, during your holiday, you would like to choose between protected landscapes, short and longer hikes, historic buildings and regional specialities. The Parque Nacional da Peneda-Gerês covers more than 70,000 hectares of protected land. Arcos de Valdevez is one of five municipalities whose territory is included in the national park. Founded in 1971, the park is classified by UNESCO as a biosphere reserve.

Experience nature and choose suitable trails

The national park also includes the Serra do Soajo and the Serra Amarela. An important gateway is the Porta do Mezio, which is also home to a Biological Park, an avifauna observatory and an interpretation centre for the Mezio/Gião archaeological area. At Parque Aventura, you can combine tree climbing, ziplining and climbing. This allows you to plan an active day in different ways without all travellers having to choose the same activity.

Several circular hiking trails with clearly different levels of difficulty are available for planning your day. At 2.6 kilometres, the PR 25 – Trilho dos Passadiços is very easy. The PR 7 – Caminhos do Pão e Caminhos da Fé is 5.3 kilometres long and is classified as easy. The 4.3-kilometre PR 11 – Trilho da Poça do Couto is also easy. If you are looking for a longer route of moderate difficulty, the PR30 – Trilho do Castelo de Santa Cruz offers a 10-kilometre circular trail.

The River Vez also provides its own way to access the landscape. The Museu da Água ao Ar Livre do Rio Vez is an information and reception centre for a 20-kilometre route between the river mouth and the Ponte de Vilela. Six observation points for fauna and flora are located along this route. When choosing your accommodation, therefore, consider whether you primarily want to focus on short hikes, longer sections of trail or the national park.

Historic Sites and Remarkable Buildings

The Paço de Giela is a remarkable example of medieval and early modern private secular architecture and is considered one of the most important national monuments. The tower visible today was built in the mid-14th century and replaced an earlier tower that had already existed in the 11th century. At the Espaço Valdevez – História e Arqueologia, the history of the Arcos de Valdevez area is presented through a chronology spanning almost 8,000 years.

Sistelo was the national winner of the 7 Maravilhas de Portugal in the Aldeia Rural category. In the town centre, you can see a group of espigueiros, a traditional fountain, typical houses and the Casa do Castelo de Sistelo, built in the mid-19th century. Soajo has a unique 16th-century pillory as well as 24 espigueiros made entirely of granite on a large rocky outcrop. For further insights into the past, the Gião rock art complex leads to more than one hundred Bronze Age engraved rocks. The archaeological site is located on Monte do Gião at an altitude of almost 800 metres and overlooks a vast natural amphitheatre.

Religious and artistic testimonies complete the picture. The Centro Interpretativo do Barroco is located in the Igreja do Espírito Santo, which is classified as an Imóvel de Interesse Público. The Santuário de Nossa Senhora da Peneda includes an approximately 300-metre-long tree-lined staircase with 20 chapels and scenes from the life of Christ.

Traditions, science and regional specialities

The annual Feira de Artes e Ofícios Tradicionais de Soajo includes craft workshops and cultural performances. In the landscape, Brandas and Inverneiras are reminders of former seasonal transhumance: in summer, shepherds moved with their livestock to higher-altitude Brandas, and in winter to lower-altitude Inverneiras. These places are no longer used in this way today, but have been preserved as evidence of times gone by.

If you would like to discover regional products alongside nature and history, you can combine the Roteiro do Vez wine route with visits to two Quintas on the slopes of the Vez Valley. The Espaço Vinhos e Sabores offers a local tasting experience featuring wine, honey, preserves, confectionery, biscuits, cured meats and liqueurs. For families with different interests, the outdoor area of the Oficinas de Criatividade Himalaya – Centro de Ciência Viva dos Arcos also offers scientific equipment that can be used free of charge and a life-size replica of the Pirelióforo solar machine.

Choose accommodation according to your own plans

Arcos De Valdevez suits a variety of travel preferences: You can focus on cultural monuments and townscapes, choose hiking trails according to their length and level of difficulty, or combine nature experiences with regional flavours. When looking for a holiday apartment or holiday home, it is therefore worth deciding first which priorities you want to set for your days.

For further guidance, you can also visit the pages for Arcos De Valdevez, Gavieira, Paçô, Rio Frio, Carralcova, Couto, Pedreiro (Salvador), Álvora and Cabreiro.

For the higher-level travel overview: Viana Do Castelo.