Portugal is not as popular with American tourists as the rest of Europe so much of it may seem hidden. We (well, I) wanted to discover more Hidden Portugal. And I found it in the Schist Villages.
These 27 villages lie in the Serra da Estrala mountains in central Portugal. Their name comes from the Schist stone that they are made of. Literally everything from buildings to sidewalks and roads are made of schist. The villages were largely abandoned for years and only recently are being restored and becoming destinations unto themselves. I stumbled upon these during my online trip research and thought they made for ideal inspiration for paintings. I had to go and designed our route so that we could drive through them on our way from the Douro Valley to Evora.
I plotted the largest of them, Talasnal, into our GPS and off we went. I knew they were remote. I knew they were in the mountains. I did not know how difficult it would be to reach them. They are truly Hidden Portugal!
The GPS put us on the fastest route. In Europe this often means getting on really tiny roads as short cuts between major roads. On this route that strategy was on steroids!
We went through some small villages with roads so narrow we thought they were cow paths. Lousa is the nearest town of any size near the Schist Villages and lies in a valley. Once past Lousa, the route heads up into the mountains. Picture a narrow road, with no guardrails, trees on one side and steep hills with nothing but brush to stop your fall on the other. God help us if a car came from the other way as we weren’t sure the road could handle two vehicles. Thankfully, in Hidden Portugal, we only saw a few. At one point, we were heading up a steep incline, got near the top and couldn’t see the road in front of us to know whether we had to turn or go straight. Dave, with nerves of steel and a belief in God, inched up until the car flattened out enough for us to see the road in front of us. Whew!
We saw two of the villages – Casal Novo and Talasnal – the first two you come to. They are as picturesque as I had hoped.
Beautiful Hidden Portugal! On to Evora.
