Showing posts with label Portugal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Portugal. Show all posts

Wednesday 3 June 2020

Monsanto Village Portugal

An enchanting and lonely village of Monsanto is located at Southeast of Serra da Estrela in Portugal, perched on the side of a mountain. Monsanto village is built among rocks, with squeezed homes between massive boulders, and small streets carved through the rocks. The beauty of this village hasn't changed in several centuries. It lies on an important strategic location defending from various invaders over the centuries.

Few of the granite houses have Manueline doorways and the wreck of a castle that started as a Lusitanian fortified settlement, offering splendid views stretching as far as Serra da Estrela. The mountain peak has actually been very important strategic position since prehistoric times, crowned by remnants of Templar castle, partially damaged by an explosion in the 19th century.

In the national contest of 1938 Monsanto village was dubbed "the most Portuguese village in Portugal". Therefore, since then building restrictions have allowed it to remain a living museum. It is not easy to reach Monsanto by public transportation, but its atmosphere and the immense panorama is worth a drive from the towns close by or Serra da Estrela.

A former civil parish in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova, covered an area of 131km. The village is populating with the one thousand residents. The Monsanto historic village is built upon in a fusion of nature and its landforms that can be seen in the uses of caves and rocks being converted into construction parts. Monsanto village has maintained its classics charms from many centuries.

In many houses, the boulders are fitted with doors leading to structure carved into a magnificent landscape. The classics village-style impresses the visitors with the cottages built in boulder chic than medieval Romanesque. This is one of the most extraordinary place in Portugal and people of Monsanto accolade the structure. 

You will relish the walk around the quaint town, steeps in many parts, but worth a while. This village is dazzling! Set upon a hillside with 360°C panoramic views across the countryside. Also, find good places for pedestrian walks and radical activities.
Monsanto Village Portugal

Monsanto Village Portugal

Monsanto Village Portugal

Monsanto Village Portugal

Monsanto Village Portugal

Monsanto Village Portugal

Monsanto Village Portugal

Monsanto Village Portugal

Monsanto Village Portugal

Monsanto Village Portugal

Monsanto Village Portugal

Monsanto Village Portugal

Monsanto Village Portugal

Monsanto Village Portugal

Monsanto Village Portugal
Monsanto Village Portugal

Monsanto Village Portugal

Monsanto Village Portugal

Monsanto Village Portugal
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Monday 23 December 2019

The Historical Fátima Shrines in Portugal

As World War I was devastating Europe, three illiterate children in a poor village started experiencing multiple visions of the Virgin Mary in an isolated ravine called Cova da Iria. As the news spread quickly from Portuguese village to village, soon thousands of townspeople also experienced aspects of the apparition and the legend of Fátima started. 
Notwithstanding only three children as direct witnesses, thousands of others experienced a variety of miracles and strange sightings. Probably the most amazing was when 70,000 people filled the valley for the sixth apparition during a heavy downpour. 
And became astoundingly dry as the sun suddenly burst through the clouds concluding the sightings. After this event the three youngsters became world-renowned and the atmosphere of their peasant village would never be the same.
The story begins early in 1916 when nine-year-old Lúcia Santos was sent by her parents to tend the family’s sheep in the hills near the village of Fátima. Her cousins Francisco Marto aged just eight, and his six-year-old sister, “Jacinta”, also accompanied her. The children were walking along a hillside when they saw a vision of a human figure. Writing many years later of the event, Lúcia remembers, “It was a figure like a statue … a young man, about fourteen or fifteen, whiter than snow.”
The figure spoke to the children, directing them to pray three times with him, “My God, I believe, I adore.” Yet the children kept their first encounter a secret. The next year, in 1917, the Marian series of apparitions appeared to the children near the same place. The children first saw two flashes of lightning and then a “Lady, brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light” who said she was from heaven.
Lúcia the only one of the three children whoever spoke to the visions directly asked, “What do you want of me?” The Lady answered, “I want you to come here for six months in succession. Then I will tell you who I am and what I want.” The Lady also directed the children to pray every day for peace before she departed in a blinding light.
The children, uncertain of what had happened to them again. But they promised to keep quiet as they had before. However, later Jacinta let the subject slip to her parents. Soon the entire village knew of the supposed apparitions and started making fun of the children. Yet the children knew the apparitions were to continue through October, always on the 13th day of each month.
The second vision came to the children again on the prophesied date in front of 60 onlookers. After the second sighting, the apparitions were reported widely. Fátima is among the most visited shrines in the world devoted to the Virgin Mary. The site draws more than eight million visitors a year, putting it on par with Lourdes in southern France.
The information Mary conveyed to Lúcia during the apparitions remains a mystery. The three secrets of Fátima came during the July appearance when the lady prefigured the coming of World War II, another identified Russia’s “rejection of God,” and the final secret became a “sealed message” recorded by Lúcia, for the pope’s eyes only.
However, the officials opened the third secret in 1960, but only the pope knows the letter in its entirety. Part of the third message describes the 1981 assassination attempt on the pope. 
Also prophesied by Mary, both Francisco and Jacinta died soon after the apparitions ended during the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918–1920. One of the final requests of the Virgin Mary was to have a place of worship devoted to her in the valley.
A small chapel built at Cova da Iris to commemorate the apparitions was destroyed by skeptics in 1922, only to be replaced by a massive square and towering church. Uncomfortable with all the attention, Lúcia left Fátima to become a nun in 1926, and in 1948 joined a Carmelite monastery in Spain where she still lives. She has only returned to the shrine a few times since it was built. In 1930, after thoroughly investigating the events of 1917, the Vatican authenticated the apparitions.
Getting to Fátima Sanctuary,
The Sanctuary of Fátima is also famous as Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima is a Catholic religious buildings and structures in Cova da Iria, in the civil parish of Fátima, in the municipality of Ourém, in Portugal. It is located in west-central Portugal, in the region of Leiria and approximately 87 miles (140 km) north-northeast of Lisbon.
Fátima is a small rural village in a rocky region whose main export product is olive oil. A train runs daily from Lisbon to Chão de Maças, 12.5 miles (20 km) outside Fátima. From there a 30-minute bus ride takes passengers from Chão de Maças into Fátima.



Friday 13 May 2016

The Dizzying Paiva Walkways in Portugal



An incredible 8-KM walkway along the bank of Paiva River in arouca, Portugal stretches across the sprawling natural terrain.  The wooden walkways that cling to the mountain side a winding staircase that leads to the top of a huge hill, providing a stunning 360° panoramic view of the terrain, and an extremely narrow wooden bridge that spans across the river surrounded by soaring cliffs, sweeping views of waterfalls, quartz crystal deposits, exotic fauna and flora and abundant natural vegetation. The ‘Paiva Walkways‘was opened in July 2015, and route begins from the river beach Areinho and finish at another beach Espiunca. Last year in September, the devastating wildfire damaged over 600 meters of wooden walkways, but authorities has done restoration work quite briskly and reopened for public.
The Paive Walkways completed by Arouca Municipality and engineering company trimetrica. The Paiva walkways ismore than merely a simple walk in nature, this unique experience is an infrastructure that interferes as little as possible with the surrounding environment and continues along the topography, with rest stops and strategic panoramic points positioned to admire the view. Hikers are bestowed with stunning natural views to capture the route dizzying directions, documenting different parts of the path and its relationship to the marvelous landscape. 

Thursday 26 November 2015

The Real-life Flintstones House



The incredible holiday home is carved between four granite boulders and comes with a swimming pool and bulletproof windows but there's no electricity. It looks primitive but the stone house is well-equipped with a fireplace and a pool carved out of one of the rocks could have been a yabba dabba do time.

The real life Flintstones house also known as Casa do Penedo, or House of Stone.  This strange dwelling was built in northern Portugal’s Fafe Mountains perched at an elevation of nearly 2,600ft. This house has been converting into tourist magnet after being transformed into a museum though earlier this was a holiday home by a family. Now this stone of house has earned a reputation as a real-life “Flintstones house”. However, it is ot precise, why the original owners required bulletproof doors and windows. Portuguese photographer Ricardo Oliveira Mateus, 34, recently returned to the 16.5-ft tall house to capture its unusual character.

The house was built in 1972 from four large boulders that serve as the foundation, walls and ceiling of the house. Due to its uncommon design and integration into the surrounding nature, the building has become a growing tourist attraction being really impressed by the house architecture and the magnificent view around it.









Monday 16 February 2015

Ponte Vasco da Gama Bridge! One of Longest Bridge in Europe

The Vasco da Gama Bridge is a cable stayed bridge flanked by viaducts and range views that spans the Tagus River in Parque das Nacoes in Lisbon, capital of Portugal.  The magnificent bridge is 17km long though 10km of which pass over water, making it the longest bridge in Europe when it was opened in 1998 and still today one of the longest in the world.

Vasco da Gama has the same length as the road-rail tunnel-bridge linking Denmark and Sweden. The bridge vastness enforced engineers to factor in the curvature of the earth during its construction. That makes it a wonderful feat of engineering, made up of numerous sections supported by pillars, built at a cost of one billion US dollars.  Ponte Vasco da Gama bridge was well inaugurated on March 31, 1998 after 18 months of day/night work construction, and just in time to carry visitors from southern Portugal, Spain, and other parts of Europe to Expo98.

The Vasco da Gama is surely not as charismatic as the Lisbon’s other bridge the golden arched Ponte 25 de Abril but its sheer size and ability just to stretch out into the horizon is an engineering marvel. Lisbon has always been plagued with heavy traffic issues and during the mid-90’s traveling south out of Lisbon had become insupportable with the six lanes Ponte 25 de Abril simply unable to handle the volumes of commuters. Suggestions for a new bridge had been bounced around for decades but the distance to traverse, poor foundations and possibility of seismic activity had always pushed the construction costs beyond that of which the government could have the funds for.

The opening of the bridge coincided with the opening of Expo 98 as floods of Spanish and European tourists traveled to Lisbon from the east of the city. The value presently set for enlargement is when the average number of cars exceeds 52,000 per day and it is expected with the next 6 years. The bridge has a life expectancy more than 120 years, having been designed to withstand wind speeds of 250 km/h and hold up to an earthquake 4.5 times stronger than the historical 1755 Lisbon earthquake estimated at 8.7 on the Richter scale.