Lindoso

High on the Galician frontier of the Peneda-Gerês national park, the parish of Lindoso keeps two of the north’s most photographed sights side by side: the tower and walls of a border castle, and the long rows of granite granaries — the espigueiros — that still store the maize harvest above the damp ground.

The castle of the Restoration

The castle’s origins reach back to the thirteenth century and the charters of D. Dinis. Its great days came in the Restoration war against Spain: occupied by the enemy in 1662, it was retaken the following year, and the works that modernised the fortress finished around 1666 — the date carved over one of its gates. The walls and tower command the valley and the frontier line, and the complex of castle and granaries is today in classification as a national monument.

Granaries, trails and the dam lake

The village’s fields hold the espigueiros — stone corn-cribs raised on mushroom pillars, dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and still in use, a craft shared with the neighbouring village of Soajo across the Lima. Trails of the national park cross the parish towards the Serra Amarela, and the great Alto-Lindoso dam on the Lima river fills the valley below with its deep blue water. The fortress town of Valença lies downstream, and Melgaço stands to the east on the same frontier.

What to see

• The castle and its 1666 gate
• The rows of espigueiros granaries still in use
• The trails towards the Serra Amarela
• The Alto-Lindoso reservoir on the Lima
• The frontier views over the park

Practical information

Lindoso lies in the Ponte da Barca municipality, in the Viana do Castelo district, inside the Peneda-Gerês National Park, about twenty-five kilometres from the county seat. Mountain weather changes fast: bring layers and shoes with grip, and check the official websites before setting out.

Image credit: Espigueiros do Lindoso by Krzysztof Golik — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.