Between two rocks and other Monsanto, Portugal Things to Do Tips

This house is definitely the most photographed and well known in the whole of Monsanto. It has the most picturesque setting, between two rocks.

From what I saw, it must be quite tiny inside, and the lady I saw going in seemed to be oblivious of the photographers that must be a permanent fixture outside her house.

It's a little bit tucked away, so you may miss this house if you don't know it exists and make a little bit of effort to find it. Your best bet is to take a picture of the house and get a local to point you in the right direction.

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Directions: Monsanto is in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova in the Beira Alta. Monsant is 321 Kilometres from Oporto and 300 Kilometres from Lisbon. Get on the N240 from Castelo-Branco towards Spain, and then approx halfway to Spain, turn off and follow the signs.

With all the huge rocks in Monsanto just scattered around as if just tossed there by a giant, the space is somewhat limited. The villagers have therefore had to be a little creative as to how and where they build their houses.

In this case the house has been built around a rock, which is actually quite unusual, as I guess you can't have any connecting corridors or rooms in the middle of your house, although I guess it muffles sounds somewhat from the other side of the house!

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Directions: Monsanto is in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova in the Beira Alta. Monsant is 321 Kilometres from Oporto and 300 Kilometres from Lisbon. Get on the N240 from Castelo-Branco towards Spain, and then approx halfway to Spain, turn off and follow the signs.

This church is quite old, it also looks quite small, even for a village the size of Monsanto.

It is fairly prominent as it sits on a little outcrop of rock, and is one of the only towers in the village. It also has a weathervane on the top of it. so you can normally find it quite easily wherever you are in the village.

The weathervane is in the shape of a cockerell, which is pretty common in England. As the cockerell is the National Emblem of Portugal, I couldn't help wondering if there was a little more significance to it here!

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Directions: Monsanto is in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova in the Beira Alta. Monsant is 321 Kilometres from Oporto and 300 Kilometres from Lisbon. Get on the N240 from Castelo-Branco towards Spain, and then approx halfway to Spain, turn off and follow the signs.

In my transportation tips, I warned against trying to drive too far into Monsanto. This picture may give you some insight into why you shouldn't try!

The roads are incredibly narrow, and there is every chance you will find a donkey, cow or other animals just wandering around in the street in front of you meaning you could get stuck for quite some time!

If you walk, you get time to look around and see how the villagers live. This street is not at all untypical in Monsanto.

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Directions: Monsanto is in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova in the Beira Alta. Monsant is 321 Kilometres from Oporto and 300 Kilometres from Lisbon. Get on the N240 from Castelo-Branco towards Spain, and then approx halfway to Spain, turn off and follow the signs.

These are some of Monsanto's most beautiful old buildings, and are very near to the church and the Pousada. The term Pousada may not be familiar with a lot of people. If you are familiar with Spain, you will probably have heard of a Parador - it is a pretty up market hotel that is run by the government. A Pousada is Portugals answer to a Parador.

These buildings are unusual in that they are whitewashed. Most of Monsanto's buildings are bare stone, which is very nice, but this makes a nice contrast!

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Directions: Monsanto is in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova in the Beira Alta. Monsant is 321 Kilometres from Oporto and 300 Kilometres from Lisbon. Get on the N240 from Castelo-Branco towards Spain, and then approx halfway to Spain, turn off and follow the signs.

Unfortunately I didn't quite have a lens wide enough with me to do this justice, but trust me when I say this house was tiny!

This house had been abandoned for some reason and everything removed apart from some collapsed door and fallen in roof. The front door was propped open, so it was possible to look inside.

This picture shows the view from the doorway - I didn't consider it safe to venture any further! The boulder the house was built against can be seen on the right of the picture. Quite how they managed to fit much mre than a bedroom and one other room inside would be beyond me. When I looked, all the internal walls were missing, so it was impossible to see what the room layout would have been - if indeed there ever was any!

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Directions: Monsanto is in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova in the Beira Alta. Monsant is 321 Kilometres from Oporto and 300 Kilometres from Lisbon. Get on the N240 from Castelo-Branco towards Spain, and then approx halfway to Spain, turn off and follow the signs.

I have to admt I would feel a shade wary about living in this house!

It has been built UNDER a rock! It looks like somebody doesn't quite trust the rock either, as a stick of rock has been placed inbetween the two big rocks to brace them apart, you may have to enlarge the photo to see this however.

This picture also shows a terrace built up from this house that sits around the second of the two rocks, and another house that is built between the two rocks. This picture is probably the best one I have for showing just how much the villagers have to be creative to use every inch of space that they have!

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Directions: Monsanto is in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova in the Beira Alta. Monsant is 321 Kilometres from Oporto and 300 Kilometres from Lisbon. Get on the N240 from Castelo-Branco towards Spain, and then approx halfway to Spain, turn off and follow the signs.

This picture shows houses that would probably make a modern town planner have a fit due to their different heights, orientations and they way they are all squashed toegther.

Whilst this would look pretty bad in a modern town, this just adds to the charm in Monsanto where all of the houses have had to be built around obstacles or eachother.

In 1938, Monsanto won a competition in Portugal for being the Most Portuguese Town in Portugal. Quite what this means is beyond me as surely this would mean it had to be the most average town in Portugal, which it certainly is not!

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Directions: Monsanto is in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova in the Beira Alta. Monsant is 321 Kilometres from Oporto and 300 Kilometres from Lisbon. Get on the N240 from Castelo-Branco towards Spain, and then approx halfway to Spain, turn off and follow the signs.

Is this house supposed to be a two storey bedsit (i.e. one small appartment downstairs, and another different one upstairs)?

I don't reckon I could stand up inside either of them being over 6 foot tall (approx 185 cm), and there looks to be very little space in both of them.

However the Monsanto charm mans that theey do look very quaint and beautiful, even if they don't look very practical!

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Directions: Monsanto is in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova in the Beira Alta. Monsant is 321 Kilometres from Oporto and 300 Kilometres from Lisbon. Get on the N240 from Castelo-Branco towards Spain, and then approx halfway to Spain, turn off and follow the signs.

Monsanto has a ruined castle up on the hill above it. It has a great position as you can see down all around you and it is quite a step trek to get up there. There are still some walls left, but nothing that you could call as castle.

This castle was originally built by the Lusitanians as a fortified development, and was improved from there. It was destroyed in the 19th Century by an explosion caused by gunpowder.

There is a story told that the villagers of Monsanto were once surrounded by the Moors (the Arabs that used to live in Spain and Portugal a few hundred years ago). The idea was to starve them out of the castle. When the villagers were down to their last calf, they got desperate, and decided to kill it, stuff it with their last grain, and throw it over the wall to show the Moors they would never give up. Apparently it worked, and the Moors left them. In May each year, the villagers re-enact this 'victory' and have a party too.

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Directions: Monsanto is in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova in the Beira Alta. Monsant is 321 Kilometres from Oporto and 300 Kilometres from Lisbon. Get on the N240 from Castelo-Branco towards Spain, and then approx halfway to Spain, turn off and follow the signs.