Granaries of Soajo

If you have not yet been there, take some days off and go to Soajo, the small community village implanted in the midst of the fauna and flora of outstanding natural beauty which is the landscape of the Peneda-Gerês National Park, right in the heart of the Minho.

The 24 granaries of Soajo make up the community threshing yard of the village. They were built when the cultivation of maize was increased to this area, in order to store the cereal, and are topped with a cross that invoked divine protection. The oldest of these open air “stores” dates back to 1782.

Picturesque granite monuments, some still used by the villagers, the granaries of Soajo provide one of the most unusual scenarios on the embankments to be found in the Serra da Peneda, overlooking the River Lima. Today tourists descend on them, as with the unmistakable sentinels of a village founded in 1 AD, which was a council until the mid 19th century and which continues to surprise us with its originality and beauty.

If you do not know what a community village was, I can let you in on the fact that until one hundred years ago the village had one judge elected by the population… as for the rest, you’ll have to go there, there is much more to learn!