PENHA GARCIA
40° 02' 24" N; 7° 01' 09" W
Penha Garcia is a Portuguese parish in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova, with an area of 128.42 km² and 551 inhabitants (2021 census). Its population density is 4.3 inhabitants/km². Its average altitude is 480m.
History
The region is rich in prehistoric and Roman remains, the latter well documented in the ruins of the chapel of S.Lourenço.
The current settlement must have resulted from a Lusitanian castro, where the Penha Garcia mountains are abundant. The rock overlooking it must have been fortified since ancient times. Its towering castle must have been ordered to be built by D. Sancho I, who had the clear political intuition of fortifying Beira to defend the center of the country, against secular enemies, the Leonese who were beyond Erges and the Moors beyond. of the Tagus.
Penha Garcia received Charter D.Afonso III, on October 31, 1256. The document states that the residents of Penha Garcia are given the charter, uses and customs of Penamacor. Realenga then, Penha Garcia continued like this until the time of D. Dinis, who in 1303 donated it to the Templars, in the person of his master Vasco Fernandes. From the Templars it passed to the Order of Christ and, in the 16th century, with the integration of the military orders into the crown, it returned to royal possession again. D.Manuel I granted it a new charter, in Santarém, on June 1, 1510.
His commendation has belonged, since the 17th century, to the House of the Count of São Vicente da Beira. It was a place of the kingdom, or of victims, that Queen D. Maria I extinguished (like all others) by a law of 1790.
On November 6, 1836, the municipality of Penha Garcia was extinguished. From then on, it became part of the municipality of Monsanto until its extinction in 1855, when it passed to the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova.
Patrimony
Ponsul Valley
Penha Garcia Castle
Church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Penha Garcia parish church)
Chapels of S. Sebastião, S. Lourenço and Espírito Santo
Pillory of Penha Garcia
Places of interest
Manor Houses
Common Ovens
Forge
Tourist office
Image of Our Lady of Milk, in the main church, carved in ancient stone from the 15th century
Fossil route, inserted in the Naturtejo Geopark
Penha Garcia Dam
Water mills on the Ponsul river
N 40.04364498560548º; W 7.014411091804504
With water from the Penha Garcia dam, which preserves part of the flow of the Ponsul river in its dam, the Pego dam was limited by some stone walls.
Details
Pego's River Beach, lacking some of the infrastructure that characterizes a river beach, is compensated by the excellent quality of the water and a landscape as imposing as the rocks that support it. Some call it a natural pool, some call it a river beach. However, the name is of little interest when we come across a small waterfall between the “mountains” next to the Penha Garcia Fossil Route. The Rota dos Fósseis Pedestrian Route (PR3/3KM), which takes us through one of the most impressive geomonuments in the Naturtejo Geopark and through the center of this village, worth a stop at the Frágua Bar gallery.
Despite being small and almost only known to its fellow countrymen, Pego is a place that, for all its surroundings, is worth discovering.
