The village of Piodão lies on a curve in the road, like a little crib nestling at the foot of a hill.

The delightful, orderly appearance of the houses and streets, all built of schist, is interrupted by the deep blue of the windows and doors of some of the houses. This use of colour is said to originate from the fact that the one shop in the village stocked only blue paint, and due to the isolation it was not easy to travel elsewhere.

It was also the isolation that preserved the historic characteristics of Piodão as we see them today.

The charming, whitewashed parish church dedicated to N.S. da Conceição, with its unusual cylindrical buttresses, stands out among the small two-storey houses. The villagers built it with their own money and gold in the early nineteenth century.

Due to its hidden position at the foot of the mountains, Piodão also used to be a haven for fugitives from justice. One of the murderers of D. Inês de Castro, who had managed to flee the wrath of D. Pedro, is said to have hidden here.