Douro Heritage

The Douro lies to the North of Portugal, protected from the wet winds of the Atlantic Ocean by the mountain ridges of Marão and Montemuro, surrounded at the north by Trás-os-Montes, at the west by Minho and Douro Litoral, and at the east by the Spanish regions of Castela and Leão.

The Douro region spreads over more than 610.000 acres, with almost 100.000 acres of vineyards in the deep basins nested on the River Douro and its tributaries, like Tâmega, Corgo, Torto, Pinhão, Tua, Côa, among others, each one with diversified mesoclimatic expressions, but always with cold winters and warm and dry summers.

View of the Douro valley

The Nature of the Douro

This natural space follows, longitudinally, the border stretches of the Rivers Douro and Águeda for more than 120 km, encompassing 4 municipalities: Miranda do Douro, Mogadouro, Freixo de Espada à Cinta and Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo.

The importance of the fauna in this natural space, which includes the Natural Park Arribes del Duero, is undeniable, mainly in what concerns the big birds of prey and the black stork. The cragged hillsides of this area offer the needed peacefulness to shelter the numerous birds that breed here, like the griffon vulture, the Egypt vulture, symbol of the Natural Park of Douro International, the royal eagle, the Bonelli's eagle and the black stork.

Douro's Fauna and Flora

Important populations of mammals can also be found in this park: the wolf, the roebuck, the wild boar, the otter, the fox and others.

Although the groves of holm-oaks (quercus rotundifolia) are the more representative, we find also cork-oaks groves (quercus suber), juniper trees groves (juniperus oxycedrus), and Pyrenean-oaks groves (quercus pyrenaica). Shrubby communities of cistus, genista, terebinth, lavender and heath, together with the hydrophilous groves of willows and alders, contribute also to the balance of this area.

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