/ PLATEAU
DA NAVE
“The mountains are rough, primitive, but undoubtedly have character. (…) Certainly, when I called them Terras do Demo (Lands of the Devil), I did not mean to designate them as lands of sin, because sin may be more serious there or have a special aspect that it does not have elsewhere. Not at all. The mountains are Portuguese in good and bad ways. I called it that because life there is hard, poor, punished by the natural environment, burdened by the tax authorities thanks to old and inconsiderate errors and abuses, because in few lands like this is the fate of existence so palpable. Only for this!
Preface by Aquilino Ribeiro in the book “Terras do Alto Paiva”
by Fr. Manuel da Gama
Geological knowledge of the territory allows us to know and understand the space in which it is located, the processes and forces that shaped and continue to shape current landscapes, and the reason for the preference of raw materials and construction techniques used in traditional vernacular architecture.
The municipality of Moimenta da Beira is part of the Iberian Central Massif, also known as the Ancient Massif, divided into several zones according to their tectonic characteristics. More specifically, it is located in the Central Iberian Zone where metamorphic and igneous rocks with ages between 600 and 300 million years are exposed.
As a result of significant orogenic folding that occurred in the Cenozoic Era, progressively reduced by erosion and becoming peneplanated, it presents some diversity of relief, with the common feature being the harshness and difficulty of conditions imposed on the populations that persisted in settling here.
The Planalto da Nave, defined by António de Brum Ferreira, corresponds to the natural region of Alto Paiva, presenting a catchment surface around 1000m, with very well-preserved patches (Leomil – 1008m, Laje Branca – 1012m, Nave – 1016m and Cascalheira – 1037m). With a plane inclined to the southwest that starts from the Santa Helena (1102m) and Lapa (955m) mountains, it extends to the vicinity of the Vouga valley. To the west, it is delimited by the Montemuro mountain range and the Gralheira massif, while to the east the limits are tenuous, and can coincide with the Távora river valley.
MENHIRS
AND ANTA
The plateau of Serra da Nave, with a regular altitude between 900 and 1,016 meters, extends to Alvite, Almofala, and Touro. It is the region of dolmens or “Moimenta” in more primitive language, as both words relate to the monumental cult of the dead.
Between the plateau and the “Peravelha sheet,” that strange rocky outcrop which the forest perimeter smothered by expelling flocks, and which Dantesque fires over the years have laid bare.
Points of interest:
Penedo do Cão
Três Irmãos
Penedo dos Santos Idos
Povoado do Castelo
Estátua-Menir da Nave
Estátua-Menir de Alvite
Orca da Fonte do Rato
Orca do Bebedouro I
Bebedouro II
Chã das Lameiras
Orca Grande
Orca de Seixas
Orca das Carquejas
