Monsanto

Monsanto
The place that was voted in 1938 the «most Portuguese village in Portugal» nestles on the slope of a steep hill (the Monsanto head, known in Latin as Mons Sanctus), which rises abruptly above the prairy and reaches a height of 758 metres.

Archaeological vestiges indicate the presence of a Lusitanian fortified settlement, later occupied by the Romans, at the field of St.

Lawrence, on the foot of the hill.

There are also traces of Visigothic and Arab occupation.

King Afonso Henriques conquered the hill and donated the village to the Templars in 1165; the Grand-Master Gualdim Pais had the castle built and the same king gave the village its first charter in 1174.

In 1510, King Manuel I granted Monsanto a new charter and proclaimed it a town.

After the 1640 Restoration, Don Luis de Haro, minister to king Philip IV of Spain, laid a siege to Monsant but was unsuccessful; half a century later, the Duke of Berwick suffered the same luck.

In 1758, Monsanto became seat of a county, a priviledge it kept until 1853.

One of the most symbolic traditions of Monsanto is the Festival of the Holy Cross, held on the 3rd of May, to commemorate the resistance to a long history of sieges: the women carry to the top of the castle typical rag-dolls (known as marafonas) and clay jars full of flowers are thrown from the walls.

The most typical aspect of Monsanto is the fact that the village developed around impressively big and miraculously balanced granitic boulders.

Equally impressive is the fact that its people never feared the location.

On the contrary, they took advantage of it.

This is the place of the «single roof-tile house» (a giant rock covers it), and there is a «cave», really a gap between huge stone blocks, with a door and electrical light...