Page 258 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Portugal

EXPERIENCE Douro and Trás-os-Montes 13 at twilight, from across girth of 2.8 m (9 ft). The role

Cityscape of Mirandela
the Tua river

but the family was accused of
attempted regicide in 1759 and of berrões, as beasts such as
Mirandela
but they may have been linked
! F1 £ @ n Rua Dom
Museu Municipal Armindo
to fertility cults. In more recent
Afonso III; 278 203 143
Teixeira Lopes
times the Murça porca has
been pressed into service at
Mirandela, at the end of the all trace of them was erased. these are called, is enig matic,
⌂ Rua João Maria Sarmento
defunct Tua narrow-gauge rail- Pimentel § 278 201 590 elections, when the winning
way line, has pretty gardens # 9am–12:30pm, 2–5:30pm political parties would paint it
running down to the river and Mon–Fri, 2:30–6pm Sat in their colours.
an elegant Roman bridge with ¢ Public hols The Misericórdia chapel is
20 asymmetrical arches. Built notable for its early-Baroque
for the deployment of troops façade, ornamented with
and to aid the transport of 14 designs of vines and grapes.
ore from local mines, it was
rebuilt in the 16th century and Murça
is now for pedestrians only. ! F2 @ n Alameda do 15
Displayed in the Museu Paço; 259 510 120
Municipal Armindo Teixeira Parque Natural
Lopes are sculptures, prints The market town of Murça is de Montesinho
and paintings, including views famed for its honey, goat’s ! F1 @ From Rio de Onor &
of Mirandela by the local 20th- cheese and sausage. Its major Vinhais n Parque Florestal,
century artist after whom the attraction, and the focal point Bragança; 273 300 400
museum is named. of the garden in the main
The 17th-century town hall square, is its porca, an Iron Age This wild reserve covers 700
once belonged to the Távoras, granite pig with a substan tial sq km (270 sq miles) be tween
Bragança and the Spanish
border. The region, under-
LOCAL WINES stand ably, is known as Terra
The granite pig in the town of Murça lends its name to the Fria (Cold Land). Bleak moun-
local Porca de Murça wine – one of the Douro’s oldest wine tains rise to 1,481 m (4,859 ft)
brands. As well as trying this wine in local restaurants and above heather and broom,
bars, you should also ask for vinho dos mortos (wine of the descending to oak forests and
dead). In 1809, locals buried their wine rather than have it valleys of alder and willow.
fall into the hands of the Amazing views of the park
invading French. When can be enjoyed from Vinhais,
Napoleon’s troops on its southern fringe, and the
departed, the “dead” wilderness attracts walkers,
wine was retrieved bikers and horse riders.
and found to have The population clusters in
improved. The practice farming communities on the
continues to this day. lowlands, leaving much of the
mountain range an
undisturbed habitat for rare
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