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Breathtaking Monsanto

We thought long and hard about which location to feature first on our blog from our road trip in the North of Portugal. We went to so many amazing places, so it was a tough decision - but we plumped for Monsanto.

Some of you may have heard of it because it has been in the press in recent months as it was one of the filming locations for the television series House of the Dragon. We couldn’t think of a more perfect location for the drama series to pick!

It is one of the most unique villages in Portugal, and feels like it has barely changed since the medieval era. It has always been a defensive stronghold, as it is set on a hill just 25km from the Spanish border. The castle ruins are fantastic to wander around, and the views from the top are incredible.

In 1938, it was voted the most Portuguese village in Portugal! Twelve Portuguese villages were selected and Monsanto won, the prize - a trophy of a silver Barcelos Rooster (the symbol of Portugal) - you can see a replica of the trophy on top of one of the buildings in the village.

We spent the night in a fantastic little house which turned out to be one of the most quirky places we have ever stayed in.

It had the perfect outdoor area for watching the spectacular sunsets, and the inside was an unusual and eccentric jumble of rooms built right into the rocks, with wooden staircases leading to the different levels in the house.

There are some great unique traditional houses in Monsanto and we took some fab photos of them - BUT….we are going to tease you and make you wait until next week for our next blog post! We can’t recommend Monsanto highly enough, and while we would normally say if you get a chance to go do it, we would say - make it happen, it’s breathtaking.



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