The park begins in Ourense and upon crossing the line that separates it from Portugal it becomes the Peneda-Gerés Park… Here the forests do not understand borders.

Perhaps that is why these are the lands of the Couto Mixto, a territory that never belonged to either Spain or Portugal and whose inhabitants chose the nationality they wanted on their wedding day.

A world of large trees, wolves, roe deer and wild horses that 2,000 years ago was already crossed from north to south by the Via Nova built by the Romans to link Astorga and Braga.
The legions no longer pass through here, but in return you can find great landscapes in the towns and roads of the Park. Wonders like the A Date waterfall or surprising villages like Casolas, built on land with a 20% slope. And also, unexpected finds such as the “cachenas” cows, a small breed with enormous horns.
Limia is a unique river. It has excavated a natural corridor along which history has left its human mark. In it it collects an entire river fabric that descends in waterfalls and waterfalls, rests in successive reservoirs, crosses a border and finally gives up its waters to the Atlantic. Thus, the largest Natural Park in our community is joined with the most important one in Portugal, the Peneda-Gerês National Park. Together they achieve a single protected area of ​​a unique cross-border nature in Europe.

This is the “dry raia”, since the border route is not located in the rivers but at the top of the mountains: O Laboreiro, Queguas and Quinxo to the north; Santa Eufemia, O Xurés and O Pisco, to the south. The highest points rise to 1,500 meters above sea level, combining the soft shapes of the old Galician mountains with the most abrupt ones. Needles and bolos (granite stones) that time has enshrined in complicated balances are one of the hallmarks of the area.

We will find megalithic monuments, golden legends and the testimony of the passage of the Roman legionaries along the XVIII road or Vía Nova. The milestones that they left on the road that linked the Roman capitals of Braga and Astorga through the only natural passage between these mountains, the mythical Portela do Home, border access point to Portuguese territory, still stand.

Popular buildings such as mills, walled beehives (alvarizas), shepherds’ huts (chivanas), granaries, ovens, roads and fences reveal the most creative soul of its inhabitants. A heritage inherited from tradition in the dozen rural centers that until today maintained agricultural activity within the Park. As well as the villages of O Couto Mixto, the territory that maintained a status of privileges independent of Spain and Portugal until 1868.