"Portugal's 'Most Portugese' Village ? " a Monsanto Travel Page by Bwana_Brown

Well it once was! In a 1938 contest, Monsanto was voted as the winner of the 'most Portugese' village in Portugal when considering its historical authenticity and how little it had deviated from that over the years. By now, we had been in Portugal for 8 days and it was the start of our 5th day of driving since we had left Lisbon. After a night in Castelo Branco, we left the city that morning in a heavy rain and lightning storm, the first one of our trip, after meandering around several streets and roundabouts trying to figure out which way we were actually headed! Monsanto was our intended destination, but we wanted to take the country roads to reach it, in the hope that the sky would clear by the time we arrived. With its granite-walled houses intertwined with the huge boulders on its mountain top location, this was a place that we HAD to visit!! It turned out to be a good choice, this little village does have something special to offer a visitor! Once we had made our rounds, we were off again, heading further north in the Distrito de Castelo Branco to Portugal's highest mountains - the Serra da Estrela (my 'Covilha' page).