Vila Real is an attractive old episcopal city and district capital, amid orchards, 100km/62mi east of Oporto and on the north side of the Serra de Marao, where the Rio Corgo joins with the Rio Cabril. It still has many fine 15th to 18th C. patrician houses. The black pottery from the locality, especially Biselhaes, is famous.
The 14th C. Gothic Cathedral, or Sé, was originally the church of a Dominican convent, and still has Romanesque capitals from the first church on the site.
The birthplace of the navigator Diogo Cao, who discovered the mouth of the Congo, is at number 17 Avenida de Carvalho Aráujo, an Italian Renaissance building.
3km/2mi beyond Mateus a road branches off to the Celto Iberian cultsite of Panóias. Six granite rocks bear Greek and Latin inscriptions. One of the rocks must have served as a sacrificial stone; the channels down which the blood of the slaughtered animals ran, can still be seen.
Termas de Pedras Salgadas is a spa 35km/22mi north of Vila Real on the Chaves road which is much visited for its radioactive springs and pleasant park.
There are fine views from the hill above the town, once occupied by a castle, and from the Calvário (460m/1,509ft), with the 16th C. church of Santo António.
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Mateus - Solar de Mateus, Portugal
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Vila Marim, Portugal
