Santa Comba Dão

The origin of Santa Comba Dão is lost in time. There are toponymical traces proving that this area has been inhabited since the Palaeolithic. There are traces of Roman occupation in several places: in Patarinho, in Óvoa, the existence of a Roman Villae is very probable, in the premises of the Churches of Couto de Mosteiro and Teixedo. There are those who state that Vila de Barba was once a village fortified by the Visigoths. Later, in the 10^th century, Santa Comba was highly populated and its small monasteries dominated the view. But, closer to nowadays, we have the year of 1514, when King D. Manuel gave the new charter to Santa Comba Dão. There are the houses with sheds, windows with flowerbeds, and that beautiful Rossio Square. And there are houses with manor type architecture: such as the Casa dos Arcos, the home of  Horta e Costa family, Barons of Santa Comba.  Today it houses the Municipal Library and its precious documents.There is the main church with a baroque architecture, and the Church of Misericórdia built in 1740.  And the history continues with the letters A.O.S.  These are the initials of António Oliveira Salazar, which are engraved on the tombstone of this man who was the Prime Minister of Portugal for 35 years.

Freedom finally arrived on the 25th April 1974, but the name of this man born in Vimieiro marked the destiny of a Nation that was taught by Democracy to accept its past.

Vimieiro can be the beginning or the end of a journey through five centuries of the History of Portugal. 

And let's go back to the water. Near Santa Comba Dão the water gathers with other rivers, creeks and then it forms an immense blue lake.

We are in the Demarcated Region of the Dão Wine. It is the excellence of these wines that reminds us of a series of gastronomic delicacies:  Kid roasted in the bread oven, pork, smoked sausages such as the "morcela" (blood sausage) "chouriço" and "salpicão" and the "presunto". The land gives us the beans, the potatoes, the turnips and the cabbages and everything will be ready for the delicious recipes of the gastronomy from Beiras.