Our Sunday walk :)
Gondramaz, a village in Miranda do Corvo's Council (Coimbra's District), is entirely made of stone! Schist, to be more precise, as ancient people used to build their houses with what Mother Nature gave them. This small village is surrounded by chestnuts trees, so I suppose this was what people used to live from (this and breeding cattle probably) as farming seems impossible with the schist that surrounds the village.
"Gondramaz distinguishes itself for the specific tone of the schist that surrounds us from head to toes. Even the floor we step on is an example of the best art of craft-working the stone."
"This is, in fact, a land of artisans whose skilled hands create charismatic images that are the symbol of the mountain range (Serra da Lousã) and that carry with them the name of their master and the village across borders."
Situated on the western side of Serra da Lousã, the landscape involving Gondramaz is a Nature's masterpiece. With a remarkable application in schist, the pavement allows an accessible path for the ones with reduced mobility."
Adapted and translated from here.
So, it has a lot of parking space, very accessible, and it's said that the different textures of the pavement help sight-empaired people to walk around.
The schist path (and my family!)
This village is also animated by the BTT events (mountain biking) that start here and can go over the paths throughout the mountain range.
This village was one of the finalists of the Aldeias de Portugal (Portugal Villages) competition, in the category of Remote Village!
Let me explain you how we got here: we were spending a quiet Sunday at home, when we checked on the TV that this competition was going on and one of the villages was just half an hour from us! So we decided to personally check it. It was a really pleasant surprise. Yes, it's a bit tricky to get here but Portugal has trickier roads, believe me.
Of course, I voted for it! :D It didn't win but you can tell why it was voted one of the 7 finalists by these photos.
By the way, if you are curious, Piódão and Castro Laboreiro were the two finalists concurring now for the first place on the 3rd of september, the big finale! Piódão is already really famous as a visit-card for the Schist Villages and Castro Laboreiro is famous for its dog breed that help the sheperds guarding their properties and cattle. I'm not planning on visiting those two places soon, so I'll not post anything about them as I don't find it fair to just take info from the internet and post here.
Finally, getting back on talking about Gondramaz, most of the wonderful houses are now part of the local tourism, companies that decide to restore these ancient houses into beautiful and modern homes and charge us for the night in a bedroom or in an entire house.
Nobody paid me for the publicity, but may you be interested, some pictures of two of the companies we found there:
This one (Pátio do Xisto) has a restaurant and an infinity pool, and charges for bedrooms.
This one has several houses spread throughout the village (I saw at least three) and charges for the whole house (a complete house!). It has a lounge area, I believe, but I didn't see a swimming pool.
Then, we also saw the Mountain Whisper, that also has houses available and a swimming pool. Done with the publicity! :) But nowadays these companies are responsible for the movement on these remote villages or else they would be abandoned and in ruins. And they are such quiet places that it's really enjoyable to spend some days in the middle of the nature (with scarce or none telephone or internet connection!).
I leave you with some more pictures! See you in our next trip!
Another restaurant. It translates to "The Wine Alley"! :D
("The Easter House")
For sale! If someone is interested! ;)