A Month of Portugal...Monsanto, the Most Portuguese Village in the World, Pt. 2

View of not one, but two countrysides - Portugal and Spain - from the Castle of Monsanto.

Soo, last time I told you all about the kooky little village of Monsanto, deemed to be "The Most Portuguese Village of Portugal". I mentioned the amazing boulders, the Macgyver-like building around same boulders, and its' various claims to fame.

Now we'll get to my favorite bits, the castle and the necropolis.

Don't get me wrong, I positively loved the boulder houses. It's amazing what people throughout the ages have done to adapt to their environment.

But there's a castle!

And even better, a necropolis!

Yay!!!

 Yes, I am a trained archeologist, why do you ask? 😁

Walking up through the Flintstones' Bedrock to get to the Castle

The castle, or some version of a fortified settlement, has sat atop this particular mountain since prehistoric times. It's had quite a tumultuous real estate history, having passed through many hands -  Roman, Visigoths, Moors, Knights Templar, and eventually to the rulers of Portugal.

Not a bad view, eh?

It was then continuously occupied until 1815, when it pretty much blew to smithereens by a massive explosion of a magazine powder keg which was stored within its' walls.

Castle Wall - likely rebuilt in the 20th-century

It then stayed in ruins until the 20th century, when some enterprising folks, aka the fascist government, decided to reconstruct it, with varying degrees of verisimilitude.  Kind of like what they did in Lisbon, with the Castle of St. George.

It's pretty, but maybe not so accurate. 😉

Atop the castle wall

There's not much to see inside the castle walls, but for the more daring (not I, dear reader, not I), there's a lot of climbing to be had and a whole lot of boulders to conquer.

The really good stuff - for me at least - came after the castle.

Did you think we were done climbing?
Nope, more climbing ahoy!

Which brings us to the Chapel of St. Michael. Or the ruins of the Chapel, as it has no roof, and most of its interior has been stripped away.

Chapel of St. Michael...see those big holes in front?
We'll get to them in a moment.

Interior of Chapel of St. Michael

It dates from the 12th century - thereby its' Romanesque style - and was restored in the 20th century. It's a pretty simple structure, with only a few bits of decoration.

Unidentified symbol on outside wall (top left) plus capitals,
including one with anthropomorphic figure (bottom right)

And then the necropolis! 😍

Given the terrain and the material they had to work with, the dead of this settlement were buried directly into the rock. Many sarcophagi-like shapes were carved directly into the granite, both in front of the sanctuary and all around it.

Anthropomorphic tombs cut directly into the granite.

 

 

Funerary stones

As was customary at the time, some of the parishioners were buried directly inside the church, but the surrounding tombs are the ones that really impress.

Some can be found in neat rows, right in front of the church, but others are scattered all over the very rocky terrain surrounding the chapel.

It was wonderful to walk around and suddenly spot yet another hole cut into the rock, and realize that for hundreds of years, it served as the resting place for dozens and dozens of families.

I also spotted some stand alone tombs, likely used as troughs in more recent years.  Many a Roman and Medieval tomb has been upcycled into barn furniture by enterprising (and callous) folk.




It was very moving to be there, to sense all of the lives lived and celebrated in that small spot. And then to see the view from that sacred place, and feel at once a sadness and a connection to all those who once rested there.

View from Necropolis

A Month of Portugal...Monsanto, the Most Portuguese Village in the World, Pt. 1

I’d heard of Monsanto eons ago, as probably most Portuguese peeps have. I had this vague image of it as a village high up in the mountains, very typical of the area, and very typical in general of Portugal.

Monsanto

I might have even looked it up once upon a time in one of my books about Portugal. One of those “maybe someday I’ll visit”, but meanwhile I’m not making any real concrete plans.

So imagine my surprise when - while visiting my family in Tábua - my uncle informs me that we’d all be visiting the village of Monsanto during my stay. This was doubly surprising as it’s actually quite a ways from Tábua. About a 3 hour car ride in fact.

I quickly googled it to see what I was getting myself into and soon realized that I was in for quite a treat.

The drive over was a pain in the you know where. Lots of winding roads, lots of “crap, we can’t possibly fit our modern car through this tiny medieval gateway”, lots of vertigo-inducing stops and starts. But in the end, it was all worth it.

Monsanto is a very unique place and has been deemed “The Most Portuguese Village of Portugal”. There was a competition back in 1938, sponsored by the Estado Novo, the fascist dictatorship that governed Portugal from 1933 to 1974, to determine which village best exemplified what it was to be Portuguese. They won a shiny gold cockerel figure for their trouble, a replica of which is currently atop their main church.

Shiny Cockerel atop the Church Tower

There are, I'm sure, many reasons why it managed to garner this most auspicious award, but this is the real reason why most people have heard of it.

The rocks.

The massive, gigantous granite boulders that are its' calling card.

They are spread throughout the hamlet, balanced precariously between shops and homes. Some of them have actually been turned into dwellings, though most are now more of a curiosity than an actual living space.

Once someone's home, now a small little cafe.

And dear reader, let me tell you, they're as damn fantastic as you'd think from the picture above. Claustraphobic and scary and awesome, they're very much worth the massively steep drive to them.

Monsanto is positively overflowing with lovely and whimsical homes, a few shops, cafes, restaurants, B&Bs, everything a visitor might desire.

Most of the houses are constructed from the same granite that the boulders are made of.

And for such a small place, it's been the home of quite a few famous Portuguese peeps, like the doctor/writer Fernando Namora and the folk singer Zeca Afonso, who penned the Carnation Revolution's anthem, Grãndola, Vila Morena. I did try and find his home but was befuddled by the signs and after a few labyrinthine walks, forlornly gave up in order to save my calf muscles.

Steep streets make for weary legs 😉

Fernando Namora's Home

Loveliness personified.

                              

And as if all of this wasn't enough, there's also a castle!
And a necropolis!
But that'll have to wait until Pt. 2. 😊