[ Nov.2014 ] Monsanto is a small village in central Portugal.
I saw a photograph of this village a few years ago and since then I have always wanted to visit here.
This village consists of houses and boulders on the slope of the “Holy Mountain (Monsanto)” of 758 metres.
The sight is most amazing as the houses and boulderts are unified.
It was chosen as “the most Portuguese village” in 1938 and in 1991 it was chosen as one of the 12 Historic Villages in Portugal.
On the third of May, they hold a festival “Festa das Cruzes” and its story is very interesting.
Once upon a time, Monsanto was under the seige for a long time and running out of the foods.
When they had only a handful of grain and a calf, the village chief decided to let the calf eat the grain and then threw the calf away to the enermy.
The enermy troop who were already tired saw this and got surprised and said ” In this village, they still have plenty of foods” and abondoned their seige saying”We stand no chance against them”.
This festival has been held to celebrate this event and now women throw flowers instead of the calf.
