Penha Garcia Portugal HD

In Beira Baixa, a few kilometers from Spain, a typical village spreads along the hillside. Its privileged position of defense was one of the reasons for the establishment in this place of a Neolithic settlement, later transformed into a Lusitanian settlement and then into a Roman settlement.

Monsanto Village:    • Monsanto Portugal HD  
Monsanto Castle:    • Monsanto Portugal HD  

But it will not have been smaller the attraction exerted for centuries by the existence of gold to explore in the bed of the Pônsul river. Today, the main attractions for those visiting Penha Garcia are undoubtedly the stunning view that surrounds the village, the originality of its castle, perched on the top of the cliff, and the marks that nature and history have left in this place. Come and discover this land full of legends and traditions, with all the charm of Beira Baixa.

The castle of Penha Garcia was built possibly in the reign of D. Sancho I to help protect the Portuguese frontier from the onslaughts of Leon, donated by D. Dinis to the Templars more than a hundred years later, returning to the possession of the crown in the sixteenth century , with the extinction of orders.

It is worth climbing the top of the cliff to walk through the imposing walls and observe the magnificent landscape that surrounds the village. The stones tell us the legend that, in that place, still wanders the ghost of the old governor of the castle, D. Garcia. After abducting Monsanto's governor's daughter, D. Branca, the nobleman was captured and sentenced to death. But D. Branca's plea for mercy paid him the penalty. Condemned to be without an arm, D. Garcia is still today known as "the severed one".

If the man left his mark in Penha Garcia, the same can be said of nature. One of the biggest treasures of the town is found in the quartzite rocks with 490 million years. At a time when all the continents were united around the South Pole, the seas were inhabited by invertebrate organisms that moved in the sand-clay substrates, leaving marks. To these marks, which were preserved in the sedimentary rocks and are still visible today in Penha Garcia, the people call them the painted snakes and the scientists call them fossils. And if the people of Penha Garcia have long been accustomed to their presence, researchers continue to study them, considering them a very important contribution to the scientific knowledge of a past with millions of years.