5 places you can't miss in Boticas

Whether you go for quiet visits or follow more challenging routes, Boticas offers all kinds of experiences in the midst of a unique rural environment, which still remains pure and detached from the routine hustle and bustle of large urban centres.

The 5 places you can't miss are a selection TERRA CALLAECI.

Boticas Parque

The Boticas Parque é um dos locais mais visitados do concelho e o ideal para programas em família. Associa biodiversidade e natureza com conhecimento e lazer, apresentando-se como um importante núcleo ativo na promoção da conservação e preservação do meio ambiente, em estreita articulação com a comunidade. Conheça aqui algumas das atividades.

Quinta do Cruzeiro House Museum

The house of Quinta do Cruzeiro, also known as Casa dos Silvas, was once part of a larger agrarian structure, composed of scattered couples, which served to support the owners and servants.

The house includes a wine press, a wine cellar, an alembic, a tool warehouse, an olive oil and wine warehouse, a meat warehouse or pantry, a potato warehouse, a pig and donkey stable, a chicken and rabbit shed, the granary - a threshing floor complex, reed beds and a building for storage and lodging of temporary workers - a mill and olive oil press.

There is also a hydraulic device for sawing wood, a linen mill and a small cabin for producing electricity using the movement of water.

Nadir Afonso Arts Centre

Opened in 2013, the Nadir Afonso Arts Centre is the result of a partnership between the Municipality of Boticas and the Nadir Afonso Foundation.

The partnership between the two entities allows the people of Boticas, in particular, and all visitors to Boticas, to enjoy part of the collection of the painter's family and part of the Foundation's collection free of charge.

Church of Santa Maria de Covas do Barroso

The Church of Santa Maria de Covas is the most remarkable example of the Barroso region's Romanesque-Gothic religious architecture, dating from the 14th century.

With an austere exterior, with powerful granite faces, which at the head of the church frame a beautifully decorated frieze, the church of Santa Maria de Covas has a stunning decoration of mural paintings and the tomb with a lying statue of Afonso Anes de Barroso, dated 1459.

Terva Valley Archaeological Park

With approximately 60 km2 and 47 identified archaeological sites, the TVAP justifies several visits to Boticas. If you don't have time for more, we leave you with two suggestions. The Hillfort of Sapelos, one of the most impressive fortified settlements in the municipality, from where you can enjoy a stunning view of the upper valley of the River Terva. And the Limarinho Mines, where the cuttings and lagoon, resulting from Roman mining, constitute the most remarkable landscape expression of the ancient mining of the Terva Valley.

The Interpretation Centre, located in the village of Bobadela, is the entrance to the PAVT – the exhibition contents are a bridge to the enjoyment of the landscape and heritage  in loco, proposed through visitation routes.

Sources: Boticas Parque / Casa Museu Quinta do Cruzeiro / UAUM 2016, Boticas o Espírito dos Lugares, Boticas; UAUM 2014, Rotas do PAVT, CMB, Boticas.