PR1 – S. Torcato Route

S. Torcato is a small village 5 km from Guimarães, with a vast historical-cultural heritage, where you can feel the harmony between the Earth, Man and the River, always interconnected by paths with history that we will try to recover and preserve. Being a valley of rural traditions, with the introduction of hard corn in the mid-16th century, the mills played an important role in the local economic development.

The characteristic hanging vineyards, which flank the fields of crops and the river, in harmony with the mills, confer a unique and different landscape beauty, typical of this region of the Minho.

Land of faith and strong centuries-old traditions and culture, the cult of S. Torcato has as its culminating point the Great Pilgrimage on the first Sunday in July.

The place offers the visitor other reasons to visit, besides the beautiful granite Basilica, the surrounding parks, the Ethnographic and Sacred Art Museum, the Chapel of Fonte do Santo, the place where St. Torcato was martyred in 715, when he intended to prevent the advance of the Arab army of Muça, Tarik’s general, on the region. According to tradition, his body was discovered by a Benedictine monk, under a pile of stones, in the place where the Chapel of Fonte do Santo is today.

The monument with the most history is, without a doubt, the Old Church of S. Torcato, where the incorrupt body of the Saint was kept for centuries.