Surroundings / Around us!

Amarante is his fate inextricably linked to the river and the mountains of Tâmega Marão and Aboboreira: nature, in a word. That's why there constantly feel a call to outdoor activities and fitness, mountaineering, canoeing, paragliding, walks in the outrigger (designation of a small boat manufacturing site) and paddle boats, fishing, hunting, swimming, golf, camping, river beaches and enjoyment of the water park. The Tâmega was often a raging river, which overflowed the banks and flooded the city streets: even today there are tombstones that recall such boldness. On the other hand, is located in a region like timber, often served fast and cheap transportation of logs to sawmills downstream work. Today seduces us more bucolic at its banks bordered the willows and alders, a washerwoman or another, their accidents - collars, rocks, channels, Insua, sand - that keep their names in the reference to human activities that led . Its freshness is communicated to the city and invites to walks along its banks and water sports. The mountains, in turn, give the terrestrial environment. They also lend themselves to long walks. The observation of the flora is another of its charms. And the enjoyment of the colors of wild flowers: the yellows - all different! - Mimosa, broom, gorse and coots, or the thousand shades of pink and purple of the heather.

Anyone who travels in search of cultural values, sooner or later ends up Amarante a compulsory destination. And why do your personal reading of Amarante, religious, aristocratic, the weight of the mountains and river ... Read one way or another town is a crossroads of religion: its history, its monuments, its traditions. And also a hub to provide the discovery of Terras de Basto of Tras-os-Montes, Douro, and a little further away but facilitated by new roads, the city of Porto. Historical references of Amarante should be sought in the Megalithic and Paleolithic periods, dating from these times the most ancient monuments of the municipality. Are the Middle Ages, however, the most significant buildings built in rural areas: the Romanesque churches of Gondar Lufrei, Low Ash, the Monastery of Travanca of Jazente of Gatão ... and is the best that one architectural style bequeathed to the Iberian Peninsula. In the city it can be said that the building that stands out is the Monastery of St. Gonçalo, whose church is must visit for any tourist or pilgrim. But the truth is that the Historical Center brings together a remarkable set of buildings and monuments that stand out the churches of S. Pedro and S. Domingos, the Manor of Magellan and the Casa da Cerca.