Amarante

Amarante is built where the Tâmega runs between wooded hills, and its centre is a single composition: the granite bridge of São Gonçalo, rebuilt in the 1790s after a flood destroyed the medieval one, leading straight to the monastery church of São Gonçalo with its Renaissance portal and tiered loggia of kings. Gonçalo was a thirteenth-century hermit whose tomb inside is worn where petitioners have touched it for centuries, traditionally by women seeking a husband, and his June festival keeps a set of customs that are frankly fertility-related, including the exchange of doces fálicos, phallic-shaped cakes sold openly in the town's bakeries. The former monastery cloisters hold the Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso museum, devoted to the modernist painter who was born nearby and died in the 1918 influenza pandemic aged thirty. Riverside cafés and boats sit under the bridge.

History

The Castro de Ladário, a fortified hilltop settlement, was occupied from the 1st century BCE to the 5th century CE, and Roman roads linking Braga, Tongobriga and Panóias crossed the area. In the 12th century Queen Mafalda founded a shelter for travellers here, and in the early 13th century the Dominican friar Gonçalo of Amarante came to the town and led the building of a stone bridge across the Tâmega (Wikipedia, Amarante, Portugal).

The main sights

• The bridge and church - a 1790s granite crossing leading to São Gonçalo's monastery.
• The worn tomb - Gonçalo's sarcophagus, rubbed smooth by petitioners.
• The Souza-Cardoso museum - the modernist painter's work in the old cloisters.
• The June customs - a festival with openly fertility-themed cakes and rituals.

When to go

April to October; the first weekend of June for the São Gonçalo festival. Half a day. The museum closes on Mondays.

Good to know

The town centre is small - two or three hours covers it. The June festival fills it completely. Riverside restaurant prices reflect the view. The Tâmega floods and has damaged the riverfront in past winters.

Nearby

The Douro valley is south; Guimarães and Braga are north-west.

Key facts