the country's only national park, and you can see why in half an hour
Portugal has around 30 protected areas. Natural parks, reserves, landscapes, monuments. But National Park, with its own name and the highest protection category, just this one. It was created on 8 May 1971 and covers 69,596 hectares in the far northeast of the country, on the border with Galicia, crossing four mountain ranges (Peneda, Soajo, Amarela, Gerês), 22 parishes and five councils: Terras de Bouro to the west in Braga; Melgaço, Arcos de Valdevez and Ponte da Barca to the north in Viana do Castelo; Montalegre to the east in Vila Real. Since 2009, together with the Spanish natural park of Baixa Limia-Serra do Xurés, it forms the UNESCO Transboundary Biosphere Reserve. The highest peak, the Nevosa, is at 1,545 metres.
What sets the Gerês apart isn't just the landscape; it's the overlap of things. Through the granite-quartzite valleys runs the Geira, the Roman road that linked Bracara Augusta (Braga) to Asturica Augusta (Astorga), with milestone markers still standing. There are medieval castles at Castro Laboreiro and Lindoso, entire villages built from stone granaries like Soajo (24 espigueiros backed up against a rock outcrop) and the village of Lindoso itself (50 espigueiros, the largest collection on the Iberian Peninsula). There are monasteries hidden up in the hills like Santa Maria das Júnias, at Pitões. There's the fojo do lobo at Fafião, a V-shaped stone wall that served as a medieval wolf trap, now a symbol of the village's reconciliation with the species it fought for centuries. And there's the submerged village of Vilarinho das Furnas, under the Homem river reservoir since 1972; in drought years it reappears, like a Minho Pompeii.
As for wildlife: the Gerês is one of the few places in Portugal where you can see an Iberian wolf in the wild (estimated 45 to 54 packs in the country, most of them north of the Douro). Garranos, native semi-wild horses, graze across 97% of the park's territory. The Iberian wild goat, extinct in Portugal at the end of the 19th century, returned in 1999 from the Spanish side through a reintroduction project started in 1992; today it's seen with some regularity in the higher zones. The roe deer is the symbol of the park. Add otters along the waterways, European wildcats, red squirrels, wild boar, 15 bat species. And, as a headliner, the Cascata do Arado or the Cascatas Fecha de Barjas (Tahiti) with care, because the wet granite floor is responsible for serious accidents every year.
For a panoramic view without the effort, the Miradouro da Pedra Bela. To understand what was lost under the water, the Museu Etnográfico de Vilarinho da Furna, in São João do Campo. In May and June the park is in bloom and the humidity holds. In July and August is when cars pile up on the verges at the waterfalls and the trails get congested. In October the chestnut woods turn copper. In January it can snow above 1,000 metres and the roads to Pitões close. Give it time: the park can fill an afternoon, but it deserves three to four days to really get into the mountains without rushing.
worth knowing
- the park crosses five councils in three districts; there's no formal entrance or ticket booth, you move around freely
- the best-known waterfalls (Tahiti, Arado, Portela do Homem) have dangerous access with polished stone; there are casualties every year
- the wolf is rare to spot and avoids human contact; the garranos are easier to see, especially in plateau areas like Mourela and Castro Laboreiro
- roads to some villages (Pitões das Júnias, Castro Laboreiro) are long, winding and can close in winter with snow
- in summer months it rains less and waterfall flows drop; some pools can partly dry up in August
