The Monte da Franqueira, thickly wooded with pine, eucalyptus and cork oak, lies some five kilometres south-west of the notably beautiful town of Barcelos. The Monte commands a panorama of the Atlantic, beyond the flatter country stretching westward on either side of the River Cavado to its mouth at Esposende; and of the valley of this river, framed by receding mountains, running eastward to Gerez, almost on the border with Spain. Its views thus cover the full width of Portugal at this latitude. From a point about one kilometre outside Barcelos, on the road to the coastal town of Povoa de Varzim (Estrada Nacional 205) a secondary road now runs to a cul-de-sac view-point on top of the Monte, at a height of 298 metres. Here on the rock stands a little eighteenth- -century church, with a Romanesque apse which was originally a chapel. Its altar is formed of half the jasper dining table of the Moorish chieftain Salat ben Salat, brought back as loot from the Portuguese capture of Ceuta on the 21st. August, 1415, by Dom Afonso, 8th. Count of Barcelos and 1st. Duke of Bragança. On a secondary wooded summit, some two hundred feet lower to the north west, lie the extensive ruins of the Castelo de Faria which until 1373 dominated the valley of the Cavado, and was an occasional Royal residence. The ruins stand on land which is now State property, and which adjoins the Quinta da Franqueira to the south west. They date from the 10th. century,but the site was previously occupied by a Roman Castrum, and before that by a very large prehistoric settlement or Citania. A small area of this, on State property, was excavated some forty years ago, revealing the clearly defined foundations of the bronze-age buildings, including circular houses. The castle is believed to have been developed as a fortress by Frankish military engineers from Burgundy. More >>>> Pictures: [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7]