The staircase is climbed slowly, step by step, up to 760 meters. And when you reach the top of the Nossa Senhora da Assunção mountain, in Vilas Boas, the horizon opens up all at once: within a radius of one hundred kilometers, you can see the Montesinho Natural Park, Mirandela, the Bornes mountain range and, far away, already in Spain, Sanabria.

The sun had barely set above the hilltops when there was already movement in Atenor. Not the hurried movement of cities—but the movement of long ears perking up, curious, when someone approaches the fence. Miranda's donkeys wake up slowly, like almost everything else on the plateau.

Some believe that in an olive grove in Vila Nova de Foz Côa, there are olive trees that were planted when King Afonso Henriques was still planning to conquer Lisbon.

Arriving in Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro is not a destination. It is the beginning of the journey. Miguel Torga wrote about this land as one writes about a distant lover—knowing that the journey to her is an inseparable part of the encounter.

You close your eyes. Your cell phone has been in your pocket, silent for twenty minutes. You hear water—a stream you can't see, but you know it's there, somewhere among the ash trees. The earthen and shale ground creaks beneath your feet.

The Cavalinho: the first open-air Palaeolithic engraving in Europe.

Imagine waking up on a farm in Trás-os-Montes without an alarm clock. The light streams in through the soft, golden stone window. Outside, the silence is so complete you can hear the wind rustling through the olive trees.

There is a region in the far north of Portugal where olive oil has a different history, a different rhythm, and a different scale. And that is precisely what makes it different.

July in the olive grove: small olives develop under extreme heat. Guide for tourists: arid landscape, importance of water, summer experiences in Trás-os-Montes.

Few people know, but Lebução was once the seat of a municipality. When the Castle of Monforte de Rio Livre, the fortress that defended these lands against Castile for centuries, became depopulated at the beginning of the 19th century, the administration was transferred to Lebução. In 1836, the town formally became the capital of the municipality of Monforte de Rio Livre — and remained so until 1853, when the municipality was dissolved and the territory integrated into Valpaço

There's a particular moment in an olive oil tasting that no one who has experienced it ever forgets: the instant when you close the glass between your hands, warm the golden liquid slightly, inhale deeply—and your nose recognizes something that had no name until then. Fresh grass. Green tomato. Almond. Fig tree in the sun.

Even before spring officially arrives, a spectacle announces its arrival in Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro: the almond trees in bloom. White and pink patches cover the slopes, contrasting with the dark schist and the still-grey olive groves of winter. It's a visual promise that something good is on the way—and that "something" goes far beyond beauty.

The snow of January 2026 is an opportunity worth sharing. For too long, winter tourism in Portugal has focused exclusively on the Serra da Estrela mountain range, leaving in the shadows a region that has so much—or more—to offer in terms of authenticity, landscape, and cultural experience.

Há algo de especial quando se juntam dois produtos que carregam séculos de história nas suas gotículas douradas. O mel e o azeite de Trás-os-Montes não são apenas alimentos — são testemunhos vivos de uma relação profunda entre o homem e a terra, entre o trabalho paciente das abelhas e o ciclo milenar das oliveiras.

After December closes the harvest cycle and celebrates the new olive oil at the table, January arrives in the olive grove bringing the deep cold of the Transmontano winter. The olive grove breathes slowly, enveloped in the silence of dormancy, while in the villages the ancestral traditions of the winter cycle keep alive the connection between land, memory and community. This is the month of necessary rest — but also of the invisible work that takes place inside each olive tr

Olive oil with cocoa from Murça wins 1st place in international ranking. Judia chestnut in the TOP 25. A great victory for olive tourism in Trás-os-Montes.

When December 26th dawns in the villages of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, the bonfires from the previous evening still smolder in the squares, but the region is preparing for one of the most generous and communal traditions of the Portuguese winter: the São Estêvão festivities.

The bonfires and the young men are the two pillars of the most authentic Christmas in Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro. This is not folklore — they are living manifestations of an ancestral memory, where fire purifies, the mask liberates, and the community is renewed.

Christmas in Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro is a celebration that goes far beyond the lights and urban decorations. Here, in the schist and stone villages, in the snow-covered mountains and deep valleys, ancient traditions that blend the sacred and the profane, Christianity and ancient pagan rituals, remain alive.

A Fábrica do Azeite, parceiro do projeto Azeite a Norte e espaço emblemático da Acushla no coração do Porto, acaba de receber o prestigiado prémio de "Melhor Loja de Azeite EVOO do Mundo" na cerimónia dos Prémios EVOOLEUM 2025.