An odd fame hit Monsanto in 1938 when it was voted “most Portuguese village in
Portugal”. The village is at one with the granite hillside on which it perches:
its lanes blend into the grey rock, the houses squeezed between massive
boulders. Tiny gardens sprout from the granite and dogs drink from granite
bowls.

The ruined castle  began as a castro , a
Lusitanian fortified settlement, and suffered a long history of sieges and
battles for its commanding position. It was finally destroyed by a 19th-century
gunpowder explosion. Cars cannot venture beyond the village centre, but the view
alone is worth the walk up to the ruined walls.

A story is told of how a long siege by the Moors drove the hungry villagers to a
desperate ploy. They threw their last calf, full of their last grain, over the
walls, a show of profligacy that convinced the Moors to give up. Each May there
is a mock re-enactment of this victory amid much music and singing.