Montesinho and the Mountains of Northern Portugal

Abstract

Portugal has a singular geographic position in the European context (Ribeiro et al., 1987). Set on the most western coast of the Iberian Peninsula, Portugal faces the Atlantic in an area where it is already characterized by the cold and rough waters so well known to northwestern Europeans. This coast looks due west, as can be seen from the continental map outline; and it certainly contributed to Portugal’s leading role in the fifteen to sixteenth centuries and later. As a maritime power Portugal provided Europe with the wonders from across the seas, and as a cultural melting pot Portugal, at that time, reshaped the European view of the world. The vision of a maritime destiny drove the policies and common thinking of Portugal for a long time.