A forgotten historical heritage in Portugal: Castro de Alvarelhos

Portugal is currently one of the most important destinations for tourism in the world. The country has wonderful places for you to meet. Although it is a small country, it is characterized by a great diversity. In the south, beyond Lisbon, it is warmer and attract tourism towards the beaches and the center and north may be perhaps, the places most sought  by tourists for historical attractions. Actually the north of the country, more precisely in the city of Porto, we can find representative historical heritages, including the historical center of this city is considered world heritage by UNESCO. We could talk here about the beauties of Porto, Coimbra and others and be able to write a book of several pages to talk about its qualities. But at the moment I would like to speak of an important and unknown place in the north of Portugal: Castro de Alvarelhos. 

Castro de Alvarelhos is located in Alvarelhos, in the parish of Trofa. The region had several periods of occupation. Studies show us that the first inhabitants of this area occupied it in the bronze era. The most remarkable period of occupation lasted until the fifth century AD. C. under Roman domination. After this period, the population perhaps due to a fire, left the place and moved to another unknown place. The area would be occupied again between the ninth and twelfth centuries. In the period of the Roman occupation, the Castro acquired a dimension considered with well defined urbanistic traces by domestic and public spaces. In this space, domus-style houses are identified, overlapping with the iron age constructions. We can still see the ruins of the buildings of the medieval period as the second church of Alvarelhos and their tombs. Castro de Alvarelhos has been considered a National Cultural Heritage since June 1910.

In this brief history we can see the historical importance of this patrimony for Portugal and for the world. But it seems the region lacks the recognition it should have. Most of the time, the place does not receive visitors, although it is well preserved, the monument is forgotten, perhaps because of the distance from the center of Porto or perhaps because tourist agents in Portugal have no interest in investing in alternative ways to promote tourism, being always in a comfortable zone of easy profit with its scheduled tours. Actually Portugal is a small place in relation to the territory, but because of the patrimony we can consider a big country, it seems that Portugal has a patrimony in each corner. The whole country is a patrimony. It is also difficult to convince tourists to know a place that is not in the media. Perhaps the question is here, if Portugal could promote this region more, as well as others, then the tourist could have reasons to return to the country.