Santuário da Peneda

The Santuário de Nossa Senhora da Peneda sits at the head of a valley in the northern part of Peneda-Gerês, directly beneath a granite cliff several hundred metres high with a waterfall coming down beside it. The church is a nineteenth-century building modelled on Bom Jesus at Braga, approached by a stairway of around three hundred steps rising through terraces with chapels representing scenes from the life of Christ, and flanked by long ranges of casas dos romeiros - pilgrim lodgings, built to house people for the days of the festival and empty the rest of the year, which gives the whole valley an abandoned quality outside September. The pilgrimage runs in the first week of September and fills it. Around are the granite villages of the Peneda range, the Castro Laboreiro dog breed's home country, and some of the emptiest walking in Portugal.

What you actually see

• The stairway - around three hundred steps through terraces with chapels.
• The cliff and fall - granite rising several hundred metres directly behind the church.
• The pilgrim ranges - lodging blocks that stand empty outside the September festival.
• The isolation - a sanctuary at the head of a valley deep in the park.

When to go

May to October for the mountain roads. One to two hours. The first week of September brings the pilgrimage and the only time the lodgings are full.

Honest expectations

Long narrow mountain roads to reach it, and snow closes them in winter. Outside the pilgrimage the site is deserted, with the empty lodging blocks reading as bleak rather than picturesque. Few services. The stairway is a real climb.

Nearby

Soajo and its granaries are south; Castro Laboreiro and the Spanish border are north.