Vila Real, capital of the district of the same name, stands on a plateau above the Corgo gorge, at the foot of the Marão and Alvão ranges. It is a university town and the gateway to Trás-os-Montes, the region "behind the mountains", and to the Douro valley, about twenty kilometres away.
Casa de Mateus
About three kilometres from the centre is the Mateus Palace, or Casa de Mateus, a masterpiece of Portuguese Baroque, built in the first half of the eighteenth century and attributed to the circle of the Italian architect Nicolau Nasoni. Its granite and whitewashed façade, with pinnacles, a theatrical staircase and a reflecting pool in front, is known worldwide because it appears on the Mateus Rosé wine label. You can visit rooms with furniture, paintings and a library holding a rare 1817 edition of The Lusiads, the chapel and the beautiful gardens, with a famous cedar tunnel. The palace belongs to a foundation that organises concerts and cultural events.
The town
The old centre has the cathedral, the Gothic former church of the São Domingos convent, and the house where, by tradition, the navigator Diogo Cão was born, who explored the mouth of the Congo in the fifteenth century. A viewpoint above the Corgo gorge gives a fine view. Local sweets are cristas de galo and pitos de Santa Luzia, linked to the December festival.
Bisalhães pottery
In the village of Bisalhães a black pottery is made with an ancient technique: pots are fired in pits dug in the ground and covered with earth, so that the smoke blackens them. In 2016 UNESCO listed it as intangible heritage in need of urgent safeguarding, as very few potters remain.
Surroundings
The Alvão Natural Park offers mountain scenery, granite villages such as Lamas de Olo and the Fisgas de Ermelo waterfall, one of the highest in Portugal. To the south you drop into the Douro valley, Peso da Régua and Pinhão. Vila Real is about an hour from Porto by car via the A4 motorway and the Marão tunnel, the longest in the Iberian Peninsula.