Here are some of the most impressive ancient villages of Portugal
Monsanto
Monsanto would become popularly known as “the most Portuguese village of Portugal” due to a government-sponsored competition that awarded twelve historic villages the distinction of Most Portuguese Village of their own province in 1938. It was the main town of the concelho between 1174 and the beginning of the 19th century, and the county seat in the period of 1758-1853. The earliest traces of man is from Early Stone Age at the time of the ice ages. Later, Romans settled at the base of the mountain.
Piódão
Sortelha
Óbidos
Monsaraz
Guimarães
Marvão
Almeida
Almeida is a fortified village and a municipality in the sub-region of Beira Interior Norte and the District of Guarda, Portugal. The town proper has a population of 1,300 people (2011). The town’s castle fortress was completed in 1641 and is located to the north of the village and is approached through the two tunnel gates and dry moat named the Portas de São Francisco.
Castelo Novo
Linhares da Beira
Marialva
Belmonte
Belmonte is the birthplace of Pedro Álvares Cabral, the navigator who discovered the land of Vera Cruz, now known as Brazil. Located in the Church of Santa Maria is the iconic statue of Nossa Senhora da Esperança, which Cabral took with him on his voyage. Until 1834, the statue was held by the Monastery of Nossa Senhora da Esperança.
Idanha-a-Velha
Idanha-a-Velha (Idanha “the old”) is a village in the civil parish of Monsanto e Idanha-a-Velha, in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova (Idanha “the new”), central eastern Portugal, and the site of ancient Egitânia, a former bishopric. It covers an area of 20.98 km2 and had a population of 79 as of 2001. It stands in a place where a Roman city located along the Ponsul River once lay, the regional capital of Civitas Igaeditanorum (1st century BC) under the Romans and later the episcopal seat during the occupation by the Suebi and Visigoths.
