Trás os Montes is the area of Portugal in the north east of the country. It means beyond the mountains and is mountainous, wild and beautiful.

We used the aire in Bragança  for this part of our trip as it was a good base to visit the Parque Natural  de Montesinho.

Historically Bragança was an important town as the Bragançans were Portuguese royalty. Catherine of Bragança married King Charles II. It was here that the first  of the treaties between England and Portugal was made and thus made Portugal England's oldest ally.

Today the city is big and pretty soulless but the area to visit is the Cidadela and fortunately the aire (free parking and drainage & water) is very close by. 

What Health & Safety?

The citadela is where you find the Torre de Menagem which is now a military museum with plenty of uniforms, guns and swords but besides all this stuff which may not be of interest to many, it is  worthwhile visiting as you can climb up onto the roof via a very dodgy ladder and get great views of the local countryside.

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The photo above is of the Domus Municipalis which is a 13th century building and was used, as the name might suggest as a civic building. It is an impressively large room with these narrow open windows and a tiny entrance door. The building itself is in a strange position tucked behind the Igreja de Santa Maria in the Citadela.

The Igreja de Santa Maria is worth popping into because of its painted 18th Century barrel vaulted painted ceiling. It's free to get in and if you go up the stairs you get a tremendous view of the ceiling itself.

There are bars and restaurants in the Cidadela and some rather nice walls that circumvent it.