A walking area with plenty of trees, this still has some earthen walls that marked out an octagonal-shaped trenched area, about 2 km in circumference.
According to historians, it was used as a camp for the Roman legions that kept watch over the various imperial roads that intersected here. Others have a more romantic interpretation of this space, saying that it was an area for rounding up the cattle of Lusitanian people migrating from Serra da Estrela to Serra de Montemuro.
Whatever the truth, the Cava de Viriato may be important for archaeologists, but it has no artistic merit, since it just consists of earth slopes that have been there for over 2,000 years. The Lusitanian hero Viriatus, a local warrior who fought the Roman legions, is commemorated in a bronze statue surrounded by five shepherds.
Near the Cava is the field where the century-old São Mateus fair takes place every year. |