Day five, and our plan is another three-stops. We definitely want to see Monsanto, but Penamacor is on the way, and since we're going to Monsanto, we ought to continue on to Idanha-a-Velha. But the stops are within minutes of each other, all on the other side of the Serra da Malcata in the província traditional of Beira Baixa. So there shouldn't be too much stress about the schedule.
Our general strategy is to avoid driving inside these castle towns, to avoid the narrow calçadas. Those cobbled roads often don't allow two-way traffic, or worse, basic turns at intersections. It goes like this: open your maps app, find a praça, switch to satellite view, if there are parked cars, drop a pin. In Penamacor, our 'pin' is near the Convento de Santo António, close by the highway, in an ample lot.
Penamacor is an hour from Alfaiates. It's a small município (pop. 5,682 in 2011) in the distrito of Castelo Branco, very near the Spanish border. When we arrive, the igreja at the convento is closed. Online reviews show the church, which dates from the late sixteenth century, with some impressive painted ceilings and gilded wood; perhaps it'll be open when we return.
The parking is also a miradouro, with nice views of the farms to the south, and the castelo to the east. We traverse the lot, and find the Câmara Municipal and the Jardim da Republica. Unlike Sortelha or even Belmonte, the city center is active. The café is buzzing, service vans whiz by, and the town is awake.
The Castelo de Penamacor is a short walk through a residential zone, with pharmacies and hardware stores. Just up the slope, we find the Igreja Matriz de São Tiago, also from the sixteenth century. The bell tower is famous for 'leaning' like the campanile in Pisa, but we hardly noticed. It's not leaning much, unlike its Italian cousin, but it is definitely not put together quite right – notice the reworked masonry joints between the church and the tower. Also, the church is wider at the top, there is a corbel block just above head-height. This seems at first like a photographic error, but no, it's there.
In a niche, under a scallop shell, is an adorable figure of São Tiago, with his walking staff and water gourd. Mysteriously, he is flanked by a pair of pineapples (they sure look like pineapples). But the church is also closed, so we move on.
The road levels, and a crowd of construction workers pauses to let us by. A local woman, who is 'supervising', wishes us a good morning and good journey. Just ahead is the Igreja da Misericórdia, sixteenth century, with a terrifically elegant Manueline doorway. More construction workers are addressing the terrace around the Pelourinho, they happily pause and wave us by.
A portion of the old fortress connects the Porta da Vila and the Torre Relógio. On the 'inside', there is a parapet as well, but the gate is locked. The Torre de Vigia (watchtower), is to the southeast, but even the little vila inside these walls is full of the sounds of people working.
Soon we come upon the torre and another building called the Poço d'El-Rei (king's well), a curving, bean-shaped construction. Or perhaps this is a kind of water tank, as there is another round pool just a bit down the path. The door to the torre is shut, but the views from the threshold landing are spectacular.
The castelo dates from the late twelfth century, and was placed under the control of the Templars; the torre dates from the early fourteenth century.
To the west, there is another miradouro, and we pick our way through the stone houses and subcompact cars. It's a lovely small village, particularly since it is so lively and 'peopled', but with everything closed, there's nothing to do. We retry each door on the way back, but no – must be the off-season.
Monsanto (pop. 828 in 2011) is a place many of our expat friends talk about. YouTubers, the folks with the drones, the guidebooks, everyone talks about Monsanto. It is known as 'the most Portuguese' village in Portugal.
As a mountain-top village, the parking situation here is not easy. The best opportunity seems to be near the Miradouro de Monsanto, though my satellite views show pockets of street parking along the approach. We anticipate a road full of switchbacks, but it only gets real twisty at the end.
There is one open spot at the miradouro, but it's reserved for accessible parking. The road past the miradouro is for local traffic only. As we wait for the car ahead to u-turn, the knucklehead in the minivan behind us dives into the spot, reverses, and pulls right out again. Tourists.
We all u-turn and park along the street; actually, the parking is plentiful. The guy in the minivan gets the stink-eye.
Easily the most visible landmark is the Torre de Lucano and its wonderful galo weathervane. There is quite a lot of activity at the miradouro and the nearby café. As we walk on, construction vehicles try to pass. Monsanto is even more busy that Penamacor. The main drag here, the Rua da Capela, is all dug up.
The Igreja Matriz de São Salvador is at one end of the rua. From the fifteenth or sixteenth century, it has a very nice roundel window. Although we cannot enter, we find the Annunciation window from the outside. At the other end of the rua is the Torre and the Igreja da Misericórdia, but today the largo is fenced off. We content ourselves with picture-taking. We are standing at the barrier waiting for a truck to remove itself, but a blue Golf dives in and ruins the shot. The Golf driver also gets the stink-eye.
We take our pictures anyway. As we've started downhill, we decide to continue down.
Like Sortelha, Monsanto is remarkably well-kept. But like Penamacor, the town feels lived-in. There are gates at the private residences, and cars parked along the ruas. As we walk down, we look back and up. The return trip is going to be an effort, but also a visual treat.
We pass the sixteenth-century Capela de Santo António and the gates to the nearby cemetery. The capela is closed, but there is a small window in the front. We put our iPhones to the glass and capture some of the detail inside: wood truss-roof and ceiling, headless figure in the altar, and – is that a sculpted pig-skull on the stand to the left?
The Portão de Santo António spills us out at the bottom of the village facing west. Here we find a herd of goats and some locals fixing up their garden. We attempt conversation, fail, but share a laugh. We wonder if the locals enjoy these views.
We begin the journey up to the Castelo, searching for the Miradouro do Forno. Looking out for houses built under and between the large boulders, we discover a shortcut cut in the hill. Clawing our way up, it quickly dawns on us that 'shortcuts' may not be the best idea in these steep, old aldeias. Just as we start to despair, our shortcut brings us right to the miradouro.
Here, we have a marvelous panorama of the Torre de Lucano, the café under the big round boulder (Petiscos e Granitos), and the Idanha plains.
We stop for lunch a convenient taverna with a terrace, and enjoy a private view of the plains. As we eat our meals, we hear tractor traffic rumbling along the Rua do Castelo – quite a lot of tractor traffic. In my research there was mention that the producers of the prequel to Game of Thrones were looking for extras in the area; filming is scheduled to start next week. But we have not missed the excitement, as they are setting up for the filming today. Load after load of scaffolding, water bottles, trash bins, and other equipment are rolling to the castelo.
After lunch, we look for the Gruta, one of the few publicly accessible spaces built under a boulder. It's an old pig sty, and we find it directly beneath the terraço where we had lunch.
We rejoin the ascent, and soon come upon the Fonte Ferreiro (blacksmith fountain):
A agua d'esta nascente matou a sede a obscuros heróis (the water from this spring has quenched the thirst of obscure heroes)
We press on to the Penedo do Pé Calvo (bare foot rock), a kind of clearing or landing between several distinctive boulders where there is another scenic prospect. There is a short path across to the communal bread ovens (Forno Comunitário). From here we get our first good look at there castelo.
The Castelo de Monsanto dates from 1165, when the Gualdim Pais and the Templar monks received a charter for the defense of Idanha-a-Nova (Monsanto is an old freguesia in the município of Idanha-a-Nova); much of the castelo was built from 1171 to 1185. The large barbican, visible from the trail and facing north, is from the fourteenth or fifteenth century.
Through the gatehouse, we enter the outer bailey; the eastern and western walls are defined by two towering lines of boulders. But, on either side, and on the inside of the barbican, it's simply full of GOT gear and water, and busy workers. We cannot halt their labors or linger, and photos are almost impossible. We do, however, meet a chatty British production fellow who explains a little of what they are doing, between responses on his radio.
Through the next wall and the gate for the Torre de Menagem, we enter the inner bailey. The adjoining keep is in ruins, but there is a ramp up to a parapet – and a picnic table. To our left (east) is the Igreja de Santa María do Castelo, which dates from the eighteenth century. This simple structure replaces an older church, which was erected by the Templars, but destroyed in an armory explosion. On the other side of the Igreja, another GOT crew is assembling an elaborate platform. To the southwest is the Casa dos Governadores or cidadela.
The GOT builders are leaving the cidadela alone, so we head for that.
A small porta leads to a narrow and steep stairway built against another boulder; most of this fortress is boulder. The parapet is quite high and, again, there are no railings. Since many of the walking surfaces are the tops of boulders, though essentially worn flat, it is very unnerving. But the views are breathtaking.
Holding steady as we descend the last set of stairs, we return to the inner bailey. In the center of the bailey, is a handsome, round boulder, hanging just over the cisterna. To the south is the Torreão (turret), which guards the Porta da Traição (traitor's door).
We think, at first, that the Igreja is closed, but it looks like the GOT crew has gotten in and left the door ajar; it is full of water bottles and traffic barriers. The altar is simply a cross on the wall, and there is also a stiffly posed Madonna and Child under glass.
The inner bailey to the north of the Igreja is filled with boulders. We climb to the top, and find more stairs that go up to the Torre do Pião (watchtower). This is may be the only high tower remaining from the original Templar castelo, and it it very, very high.
The small ruin visible from the Torre do Pião is the Capela de São Miguel, from the twelfth century, though it may have Roman origins. The nearby bell tower is also from the twelfth or thirteenth century. Haunting and compelling, the ruins include several ghostly, granite silhouettes – voids ready for the next courageous knights.
Headed back to the vila, we search for novel paths to return to the car, passing under and around boulders. We are boulder-hunting. We try again to photograph the Misericórdia, but there is a funeral taking place. But by navigating around the largo, we are able to get a good close look at the Torre de Lucano.
Yesterday in Sortelha, we had wished the place felt more alive and lived-in; we don't have that wish today.
Last stop, we depart Monsanto for Idanha-a-Velha (pop. 79 in 2011). It is 'the old' (a velha), and there is a mix of Roman, medieval, and other 'presences'. Some people may have left this village for 'the new', but this place is not abandoned.
There is a comfortable parking lot near the Porta Norte, a squat, sturdy gate house. The fortress walls look like they've seen serious action, so there may be reason for a new town.
The Catedral de Idanha-a-Velha dates all the way back to the sixth century, and served for a time as a mosque as well as a market hall (it is still used as a market). The exterior reveals mostly Gothic features, as well as another bird's nest at the bell tower. A vast excavation yard is exposed to the west, with Roman and medieval artifacts, as well as part of the fortified wall.
Inside, the church is clean and well-lit, and thankfully, there is a docent to explain things (in English!). The interior is more of a mix than the outside, with various sets of arches, and frescos and decorative carving in various styles.
We enter at the south corner, which appears to be the 'back' of the church, into an aisle which is not matched on the other side. The altar is instead, a boarded window, and there is a painter's scaffold, a table and chairs, and a stone path exposed in the wood floor.
The north appears to be the 'front' entrance, with a central door and a set of temporary stairs down to the floor level. At this point the docent tells us the main entrance is actually from the west, facing the excavated yard, and the altar is the wider, shorter archway centered on the eastern wall. When we stop to consider the arrangement of the artwork, this makes sense.
The altar, then, is a Romanesque arch with Tuscan order columns. At the back, there is a small niche for an altarpiece. To the left is a bright, colorful fresco of a saint standing on a beast. The docent specifically says, "the beast is not a bear, it is Satan", and the saint is Benedict. Usually, when we think of a saint standing on Satan, it is Michael, but this saint has no sword and is not in battle. It's an unusual image, and we take the docent at her word. Above the altar arch is a fresco of the crucifixion.
Other decorative elements are not as clear. It appears that someone tried to infill between the the column and the wall and add images to either side of the altar. There are vague hints of figures in an architectural setting and some Templar crosses. Most of these frescos date from the sixteenth century.
To the right of the altar is a taller, perhaps older archway with fanciful mermaids and chimeras in a decorative frieze, under a scalloped half-dome. A very faint image is also under a broad stone arch to the north, on the wall we thought was the main entrance. Three cascading niches are in the far upper left, but the docent says their iconography has been lost to time.
We ask about the wood floor and what may be underneath, and the docent tell us that the original floor is out in the excavation yard – the pieces of stone with all the 'olde timey' lettering, those are the former floor of the church.
Before we leave, we want to check both the Torre and Pelourinho. The Pelourinho is easy to find, very near the Igreja Matriz; looking quite healthy, it seems properly scaled for the streetscape. The Torre, however, has been left as a neglected relic in someone's backyard. It is something of a three-layer cake, with a Roman base, medieval mid-section, and looser rubble blocks on top.
Idanha-a-Velha is like that – perhaps an appropriate place to expose the layers of history, it's simply called 'the old'.
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