Santuário da Peneda

In the heart of the mountains of Peneda-Gerês, the Santuário de Nossa Senhora da Peneda rises at the foot of the granite walls, in one of the most beautiful corners of the north of Portugal. The sanctuary, with its great staircase opening over the valley, is the goal of one of the oldest pilgrimages of the country, and the mountain around it — the country of the wolf and of the wild horses — keeps the silence of the high lands.

The sanctuary

The sanctuary was raised over the centuries at the place of an old devotion, in the deep valley of the Peneda, with the church, the terrace and the monumental staircase that closes the view of the mountain. Each September, the great romaria brings the pilgrims to the sanctuary — one of the great religious festivals of the north — and through the year the place keeps its quiet, with the mountains of the national park rising all around.

What to see

• The sanctuary and its monumental staircase over the valley.
• The pilgrimage of September, one of the great romarias of the north.
• The mountains of Peneda-Gerês around the sanctuary.
• The villages and the high landscapes of the park.

Visiting

The sanctuary lies in the mountains of the Peneda, in the municipality of Arcos de Valdevez, inside the Peneda-Gerês National Park; it is reached by the mountain roads, and the days of the pilgrimage are the busiest of the year. The conditions of the visit and the dates of the festival follow the official information of the sanctuary and of the tourism of the region.

Nearby

Ten Peneda-Gerês National Park and the old town of Ponte de Lima complete a journey through the high Minho.

Information: visitportoandnorth.travel.

Image credit: The Santuário da Peneda, by Krzysztof Golik, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.