the first one people mention, the first one to fill up
Talasnal never went completely empty. When the other schist villages in the serra were losing their last residents, a couple stayed on: Ti Lena and her husband, and that presence held the village together until recovery arrived. Today Ti Lena no longer lives there, but the restaurant in the village carries her name. The schist around it was restored house by house, and what had been ruins became a village standing again.
It's now the most visited of the schist villages in the Lousã, the one everyone recommends first. Narrow lanes turning on themselves, a fountain and tank halfway through, dark schist houses snaking up the slope, and from the top you can see the Lousã castle settled in the valley below. On a good-weather weekend, expect a queue of cars at the entrance and people in the streets. On a winter weekday, out of season, it has the silence you'd expect, and the roast kid at Ti Lena is reason enough to make the trip up.
The drive up is on a narrow road, part of it on a dirt track; you leave Lousã by the serra road and it's about 12 km. Park at the upper threshing floor and walk down through the lanes. Don't expect to find an abandoned village or a scene all to yourself: Talasnal has long since stopped being a secret. But if you come before ten in the morning, on a rainy day, or out of season, the serra gives back almost everything the tourist poster promises.
good to know
- the road up has a stretch on a dirt track; expect potholes
- park at the upper threshing floor and walk down through the lanes
- on weekends and summer bank holidays it fills up; go early or on a weekday
- the Ti Lena restaurant is named after the last native resident of Talasnal
