The Peneda-Gerês National Park, created in 1971, it is the only National Park in Portugal, presenting an area of 72,000 hectares, bordering Galicia in an area of great natural beauty.
It includes the counties of Melgaço, Arcos de Valdevez, Ponte da Barca, Terras do Bouro and Montalegre, the mountains of Peneda, Soajo, Amarela, Gerês, and the highlands of Laboreiro and of Mourela.
Its area is a vast area characterized by geologists and water, extending from the plateau of Castro Laboreiro to the Plateau of Mourela, being the highest point, with 1508 meters, located in the Mines of Carris, a complex currently composed by a series of ruins, in which, it is possible to review its past of exploitation of tungsten in Portugal, which had a special incidence in the first half of the twentieth century.
The Park was created under the definition of a planning, with the objective of value the human activities and its natural resources, having in view educational, touristic and scientific finalities. Its creation had also as objective, the conservation of soil, water, flora and fauna, as well, to preserve the landscape in the respective mountainous region, located on the northwest of Portugal.
The forest of park is dominated by the oaks, as well as the azevinho, azereiro, the birch, the pine and the medrunheiro. In its areas of altitude, are visible the effects from the last glaciations-circuses glaciers, moraines, small lagoons and valleys in U.
The variety and the richness of its vegetation, as well the nature and the orientation of its relief with woods, is composed by oaks and pine forests, woods of birch and birch, dense vegetation near the water lines, fields of cultivation and pastures.
On the Park, there are also the forests of Ramiscal, of Albergaria and of Cabril, all the upper valley of the Homem River and the Serra of Gerês, becoming a kind of landscape and contours incomparable in Portugal.
The mountains of the Park, had been inhabited on the past by the brown bear and by the mountain goat, being that in its area, there is the wolf, the golden eagle, the boar, the deer, the otter, the squirrel, the hawk, several micro- mammals such as the water-mole, a diversity of reptiles and amphibians and a fish population, which includes the trout and the salmon, enriching the its zoological frame. 
Being a natural area inhabited since the prehistory, the Peneda-Gerês National Park, has its presence from the human past represented by the castles of Castro Laboreiro and Lindoso, by the megalithic monuments of the prehistory (4800 BC) and by the testimonies of the Roman occupation, through the geira, the old path that led the Roman legionnaires and that remains an area of the old sidewalk and on the milestones (Roman Marks).
On the Peneda-Gerês, it also marks a stage presence of rural scenery, expressed through villages, by the architecture of the terraces (portion of land more or less horizontal), by the stops by the granaries (structures with the function of drying the corn) and by the file meadows (semi-natural grassland).
In September 2010, the Peneda-Gerês National Park, was elected as one of the “7 Wonders of Portugal”, by the organization created with the same name.
Currently, there are touristic activities in development on the Peneda-Gerês National Park, based on the geographical, historical and environmental characteristics of the Park.
There are on the Park several routes previously elaborated properly identified, to go its area, such as trails to short hiking, with or without a guide, long distance roads to travel on foot or by bicycle, the Roman Geira, the Equestrian Way long, with a guide and car courses, for the quick recognizing of Peneda-Gerês National Park.
There is also on the Park an Information Centre, an Interpretation Center and an Eco-museum Nucleus, existing delegations of the Park in Arcos de Valdevez, in Terras de Bouro and in Montalegre.
Headquarters of the Park- Av. António Macedo
4704 – 538 Braga
Telephone- (+351) 253 203 480
Fax- (+351) 253 613 169
E-mail- pnpg@icnf.pt
www.icnf.pt
