Treasures of the North: Lebução — The Village of the Hidden Treasure

In the late nineteenth century, someone found gold near Lebução. Not the gold of rivers or treasure hunters’ dreams — but Celtic torques and bracelets, men’s adornments over two thousand years old, crafted with the decorative grammar of the Celtic peoples who inhabited these mountains long before Rome, long before Portugal. The find became known as the Treasure of Lebução. The jewels travelled to the Martins Sarmento Society Museum in Guimarães, where they remain on display. The village stayed where it was — between mountains, above the River Calvo, its door open to all who come in peace.

But the real treasure of Lebução never left.

A village that was once a capital

Few people know this, but Lebução was once the seat of a municipality. When the Castle of Monforte de Rio Livre — the fortress that had defended these borderlands against Castile for centuries — became depopulated in the early nineteenth century, the administration was transferred to Lebução. In 1836, the village formally became the capital of the Monforte de Rio Livre municipality, and remained so until 1853, when the council was dissolved and its territory absorbed into Valpaços.

The memory of that era is still legible in the stonework. The parish church, a Renaissance construction, rises from its twin bell towers above the houses arranged in an amphitheatre on the hillside. Inside, the main altarpiece — with Solomonic columns and a polychrome vault — is described by locals as the finest in Valpaços and its surroundings. You do not need to be an art historian to agree; you only need to step inside and look up.

Lebução - credit: CM Valpaços

The castle that the people defended

Near Lebução, the Castle of Monforte de Rio Livre tells a story of privileges earned through courage. The people of this land were bound by duty to defend the fortress against Castilian incursions — and in return, the kings of Portugal granted them a rare benefit: exemption from the siza tax on all their purchases and trades. Afonso III issued the first charter in 1273; Dinis upgraded the fortification to a castle; Manuel I renewed the charter in 1512. The ruins are open to visitors and, even in silence, they speak of a border that was held here for centuries.

The gold that came from the earth - The Treasure of Lebução

The Treasure of Lebução is one of the most significant archaeological finds in the Iberian Northwest. Two torques — rigid gold neck-rings worn by Celtic warrior chiefs — fragments of additional torques, and a bracelet make up the collection. The pieces date from the Late Iron Age (fourth to first centuries BC) and belong, in both function and ornamentation, to the Celtic cultural world that dominated these Iberian highlands before Romanisation.

Donated in 1957 by the family of Ricardo Severo to the Martins Sarmento Society Museum, the treasure can be seen in Guimarães. But it is in Lebução that it makes sense — in the mountain landscape where the castro peoples settled, on the hilltops where they built their fortifications, in the soil that kept the gold hidden for two millennia until someone stumbled upon it.

The river, the mills and what remains

Lebução sits on the left bank of the River Calvo, a tributary of the Rabaçal. Along this river and its streams, dozens of water mills once stood — the machines that for centuries turned rye into flour and flour into bread. Most are now in ruins, but those still standing bear witness to an economy that sustained generations.

Nearby, the abandoned villages of Calvo and Cachão are stone ghosts on the plateau — places where life ended but the walls remained, as if waiting for someone to return. For those who walk these valleys, the silence is that of a story that left but kept the walls standing.

Olive oil country, land of sharing

Valpaços is the second-largest olive-oil-producing municipality in Portugal, and Lebução lies within its territory. The Valpaços Olive Growers’ Cooperative, one of the country’s largest, is the institutional anchor of a production that shapes the landscape and economy of the entire municipality. In the southern part of Valpaços, olive groves cover the hillsides and the harvest runs from October to December, as it always has.

But Lebução is mountain country, and here agriculture has always been about rye, potatoes, chestnuts and wine. The local cuisine reflects this: it is hearty, warming food, made to be shared. The Emigrant Festival on the second Sunday of August and the feast of Our Lady of Remédios on the second Sunday of September are the moments when the village fills with those who left and came back — even if only for a few days.

How to get there and what to see

Lebução is 25 km from the town of Valpaços, in the far northwest of the municipality, almost on the border with Chaves. From Porto, it is around two and a half hours via the A4 to Valpaços, then local roads to the village. From Bragança, just over an hour.

In the village: the Renaissance parish church with its Solomonic-column altarpiece and polychrome vault; the Emigrant monument; the amphitheatre of houses above the River Calvo.

Nearby: the ruins of Monforte de Rio Livre Castle; the water mills of the River Calvo; the abandoned villages of Calvo and Cachão; the rock engravings at Nossa Senhora da Ribeira.

In the municipality: the Casa do Vinho (interactive museum in Valpaços); the Olive Growers’ Cooperative; the Rabaçal Ecovia trail; the rock-carved wine presses.

The treasure left Lebução. But Lebução remains the treasure — in the stones of its church, in the memory of its castle, in the river running gently below, in the door that is always open. Come and discover the village that kept gold hidden for two thousand years. It still has much to give.

Sources: CM Valpaços (valpacos.pt), Museu da Sociedade Martins Sarmento (csarmento.uminho.pt), blog Lebução de Valpaços, Rota da Terra Fria (rotaterrafria.com).

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