Seia and other Serra da Estrela, Portugal Off The Beaten Path Tips

Seia is a beautiful town set at the foot of mainland Portugal's highest mountain, the Serra da Estrela.
Seia was captured from the Moors in 1057 and officially recognised as a municipality in 1136.
You can see on my picture the town's 18th-century Misericórdia church; if you are planning to drive up the mountain in winter you should check the notice board beside it, which indicates whether or not the mountain roads are passable.
I didn’t see much of this lovely town because I was just a few hours there.

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Belmonte, 26 km from Manteigas, is the birthplace of Pedro Alvares Cabral, who discovered Brazil in 1500.
It is a beautiful town with lots of monuments to see, specially the Castle and the old churches. You can find there as well a Synagogue.
Belmonte was officially recognised as a municipality in 1199.

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Guarda is located on a 1,075-metre-high plateau on the northeast flank of the Estrela mountains,it is the highest town in Portugal. Guarda means defence, its name is due to the important role the town once played in the defence of the country's eastern frontier and it was founded in 1197 by King Sancho I.
I just spent few time there and I just visited the great granite cathedral and unfortunately the weather wasn’t the better to take photos, it was a profound fog.

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The beautiful Cathedral, Gothic in its origins, displays a Manueline portal and window as well as a Renaissance retable.

It is just amazing, take a look at my photo.

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Sortelha is one of the most beautiful villages i ever seen, it is located not far from Belmonte and from 50 km from Manteigas.
It is a medieval village located at 800m of altitude, surrounded of a wall and constituted with beautiful houses in granite all perfectely refurbished and with a beautiful castle. In this moment lives there just a small amount of people, perhaps no more than one dozen because almost of the houses belongs to people there are not from there and they spend just holidays and vacations there.
It deserves a visit for sure, don’t miss it is so beautiful!

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Folgosinho is a beautiful village hide in the mountains and hard to find.
It is placed at 900 meters of altitude, in the hillside the northwest of the Serra da Estrela Mountain and the 9 km of the town of Gouveia. Old village and headquarters of region, had charter of D.Sancho I, in 1187, confirmed in 1217 for D.Afonso II, and charter new, of D.Manuel, in 1512. It says the tradition that was born Viriato here, the famous Lusitanos’s leader.
It is funny, but I went there because of a famous restaurant called “ O Albertinho”.
You must been thinking why? I can say to you it worth a visit for sure; I will describe my experience about this restaurant in the restaurants tips.
Well, I don’t just ate and go, no, I took a stroll with my best friend (my digital camera ;-) and I took some pics as usual.
This lovely village has some beautiful historical buildings, churches, beautiful fountains with tiles (Azulejos), and Roman paths. Don’t miss!

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Celorico da Beira is a small town not far from Serra da Estrela mountain and placed at 500 metres at altitude.
The famous Sacadura Cabral was born there, he made aviation history in 1922 by making the first-ever flight across the South Atlantic with fellow Portuguese pilot Gago Coutinho.
Celorico da Beira is famous because of Serra cheese, which is made from the milk of locally reared ewes.
I just passed by this lovely town, but I visited the castle of pre-Roman origin, which was later refurbished by King Dinis in the 14th century and sacked by the Spanish in 1762.
It was so cold at the castle that I had to run to get out of there, I think I’d never so cold in my life.

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Sabugal is a beautiful town that belonged to the Ciudad Rodrigo- Spain district in 1175, but in 1190 , D. Afonso IX de Leão gave its municipality and built the Castle of Sabugal.
In 1295 D. Dinis granted Sabugal a royal charter and the next year because of the Tratado de Alcañices, is Portuguese territory.
This beautiful town is worth a visit because of its history and beauty. It is located near the Spanish towns Ciudad Rodrigo and Salamanca and not far from the beautiful historical village Sortelha.

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