Vale das Fontes is a parish of Vinhais

Vinhais

Vinhais is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 694.9 km² and a total population of 10,051 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of 35 parishes and is located in the district of Bragança....

 municipality in the Bragança

Bragança (district)

Bragança District is a traditional political division of Portugal, in the northeast corner bordering on Spain, covering 7.4% of the nations continental landmass. The capital of the district, Bragança, is 217 kilometres from Porto, the second largest town in Portugal, and 107 kilometres and 169...

 district of northeast Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

.

This parish includes the villages of Vale das Fontes, Nuzedo de Baixo and Minas. These villages belong to the so-called terra quente, or hot land. Olive oil

Olive oil

Olive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...

 and wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

 are the main agricultural produce.

The population in 2007 was 432.

The Tuela river a tributary of the Tua River, crosses this territory throughout deep, fertile and pleasant valleys.

History

The origin of this parish is very old. That is shown by archeological findings. Along the river Tuela existed a fortress, called "Muradal" (for resemblance to a wall), whose rock, granite, which is well preserved. On this site were also fragments of pottery found believed to be from the Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

. This confirms the antiquity of this fortress, being one of the best preserved of the municipality of Vinhais

Vinhais

Vinhais is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 694.9 km² and a total population of 10,051 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of 35 parishes and is located in the district of Bragança....

.

There is also a place called Castrilhão where they found several objects of that era.

Along the river, at the foot of Muradal, there is a cave, “Torca ou Pala dos Vermelhos”, which has been occupied since ancient times and that served as a haven for republicans fleeing the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

.

In the zone of Nuzedo de Baixo lies the mining complex Nuzedo / Ervedosa. These open pit mines, which some were already exploited since the Arab occupation, or even since the Bronze Age, operated until 1969, when the British owners abandoned them.

Mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 brought great development to this region and made that many people of different cultures stayed here. Thus, came a mixture, which made that the people of these lands have very distinct facial features than the areas further north.

There are no indications of ancient Vale das Fontes, but there are references on Nuzedo in the Inquisition

Inquisition

The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...

 of 1258.

Both Vale das Fontes and the villages belonging to it are part of the municipality of Vinhais since the end of the twelfth century.

Heraldry

• Coat of Arms: Red shield, three sources lined up in a band, under a silver knife and a golden palm, on top of a golden wicker hamper. Silver mural crown with three towers. White listel with caption in black: "VALE DAS FONTES".
• Flag: yellow. Gold and red cord and tassels. Golden rod and spear.

Festivals and Fairs

What	When	Where	Description
Feast of Saint Stephen	Takes place on January 1	Vale das Fontes	It is the traditional festival of the village, and is quite old. It consists of a “encamisada” (reveille Reveille "Reveille" is a bugle call, trumpet call or pipes call most often associated with the military or summer camp; it is chiefly used to wake military personnel at sunrise... ), which is organized by several people who roam the streets of the village, together with a group of bagpipers, in which the people make a parade, where they also bring animals.
Feast of Saint Bartholomew	Commemorates on August 24	Vale das Fontes	This is the main party of the village. It consists of a procession around the parish accompanied by a band. During two days, they are performances by various ensembles.
Feast of Senhor dos Aflitos	It takes place on the 2nd Sunday of August	Nuzedo de Baixo	It is organized in the same way that the Feast of St. Bartholomew.