Millenary Route

The longevity of the chestnut tree is one of its most remarkable properties, reaching almost 3.000 years old, as the popular tradition says "a chestnut tree takes 300 years to grow, 300 years of life and 300 years to die ". In Portugal, including the so called Terra Fria (Cold Land) in Trás-os-Montes, podemos encontrar um número significativo dessas fascinantes árvores centenárias que ainda hoje dão castanhas.

My Own Portugal invites you to visit these ancient lifeforms. It is a route with near 70 km, ranging from Bragança to Vinhais, through Montesinho's Natural Park.

In Bragança we visited the castle and headed toward Sabariz up to Espinhosela, where we find the first ancient chestnut. We continued over 4 km towards Terroso in a road flanked by chestnut trees of different ages. We follow up to Vilarinho, where we went though the Santo Amaro's brook. The next stop is in Parâmio through the road No. 308.

Always accompanied by chestnut trees of different ages, we went to Aldeia de Mofreita and headed towards Fresulfe. Here we have to make a detour for about 1km to river beach of Fresulfe a mandatory stop. We follow the road to a typically transmontana village of Santa Cruz and we continued to Travanca where we can see younger chestnut trees. Continue though the nacional road 3016, until Vilar de Ossos where, just outside the village, you can observe the superb landscape of Serra da Coroa with more than 1000 meters.

The next stop is the village of Lagarelhos where we find the most impressive chestnut tree of this route. This is a chestnut tree called "Chestnut" with more than 500 years and was classified has Public Interest. Finally we left for Vinhais and have reached the end of our magnificent journey.

Route of the "Judia"

Nobody knows why this type of chestnut is called this way (jewish), mas a verdade é que se trata de uma das mais importantes qualidades de castanhas cultivadas em Trás-os-Montes. The route has over 75kms which begins and ends in the beautiful city of Chaves.

In this route we passed though young and ancient groves, mountain roads and valleys. We passed through Carrazedo de Montenegro, Almorfe, France, Carregal and Fornelos. Found an ancient grove in Serapicos and a field of beautiful (and poisonous) red mushrooms in Campo da Égua. We passed through Vilarinho do Monte, São João de Corveira and Nozelo with its impressive chestnut trees with its stranguled trunk.

The journey continues to Carrazedo de Montenegro and its museum of the Chestnut but we pass first in Argemil. We went out to the water falls of Ribeira das Fragas and returned towards Chaves. From here we continue to São Julião de Montenegro and stopped at the belvedere of São Lourenço before returning to the starting point in Chaves.

The Golden Route of Padrela

The Golden Route of Padrela earns its name due to the existence of ancient gold mines on your route, mines, those, dating back to Roman times.

The trip starts in Sabrosa heading to Pedras Salgadas and their springs of medicinal water. Then we're off to Tinhela de Cima and tooke the path to Carrazeda de Montenegro passing through Belugas until we reach the village of Lagoa. Further on we find the geodesic mark at a belvedere with a breathtaking view of numerous groves.

We return to the road until we reach the village of Padrela and then to the village of Sobrado and then back again to Carrazedo de Montenegro. We went until Murça across the river by the bridge Tinhela built in the nineteenth century. The road continues to the right to Lavadeira, Fiolhoso, Fonte Fria and Vilhares until we reach Cortinhas. From here we went to Reboledo, Alfarela de Jales, Campo de Jales, Vreia de Jales and Barrela. On a stunning mountain road we walked through the stones of a Roman bridge. Then you just have to take the national road No. 212 amidst groves and overlooking the mountains of Falperra and Alvão until you reach the end of this adventure in Sabrosa.

Sernancelhe's Route

As Castanhas de Sernancelhe estão inserida da área de Denominação de Origem Protegida DOP de Soutos da Lapa e são consideradas, for many, como as melhores do mundo. Sernancelhe has around it several chestnut farms that by autumn's time, oferecem um espectáculo de uma rara beleza aquando da queda das suas folhas e dos seus frutos.

This pedestrian route takes us along the Path of Seara, the slope of Nossa Senhora near Pé da Cruz, one of the most beautiful slopes of the region.

The route starts and ends at Colégio Street, Sernancelhe. We walked through cobbled alleys flanked by the main tree of our route, the chestnut tree. The signs guide us through the landscape, without giving us any chance of getting lost.

We have two possibilities for the trip, the PR1 with around 10 km, fairly easy, or the PR1 ALT path, with more 3 km, with a slightly higher degree of difficulty, mas que nos permite desfrutar de uma paisagem de beleza única.