
About the Tour
This audio tour takes you on a walk through the ruins of the Upper Town of São Miguel and the Castle of Monsanto, an epic historical site.
You’ll discover little known stories behind all of the places you visit on a journey that will take you across time as far back as the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages. Together we’ll explore the nearly twenty centuries of history that shaped this highly scenic site into the magnificent gem you find here today.
The tour’s highlights include:
• A detailed exploration of the Castle of Monsanto and the upper town of São Miguel
• The legend of the Divina Santa Cruz
• The legend of the Apparition of Our Lady of the Castle and the explosion of 1814
• The legend of the Thirteen Bowls
• The unveiling of the Hanging Rock of the Parish of São Miguel
The Castle of Monsanto and Monsanto’s town are separated by a steep, 500 metre walk and it isn’t possible for a single tour to cover both. This tour exclusively covers the Castle of Monsanto and its surroundings. There’s also an audio tour of Monsanto’s town on VoiceMap.
Tour Producer

Eo - Immersive Audio Tours
Major Landmarks
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Castle of Monsanto
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Capela de São Miguel / Saint Michael’s Chapel
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Capela de Santa Maria / Holy Mary’s Chapel
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Capela de São João / Saint John’s Chapel
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Ruins of the Parish of São Miguel
Directions to Starting Point
When going up from the Town centre towards the Castle along Rua do Castelo, you will find to your left the intersection with Rua dos Anoques, just after the Taverna Lusitana. This is where our Tour starts.
Should you be following our "Discovering the Historical Town of Monsanto" Tour, halt it after "Location 27 - Turn left at Rua dos Anoques - Tour of the Castle of Monsanto", and start this Tour.
Our Tours are designed to be totally complementary, so you will later be able to retake your visit of the Town where you left it.
Tips
Places to stop along the way
Castelo Branco, Proença-a-Velha, Idanha-a-Nova, Idanha-a-Velha, Penha Garcia, Historical Town of Monsanto
Best time of day
This is clearly a Tour that must be taken during the day. We suggest avoiding the extreme heat of the summer, when it is common for temperatures to go over 40º Celsius. Try also to avoid days of extreme cold in the winter, with snow or ice, as the steep cobbled road and the stones will then become very slippery.
In order to optimize your visit to Monsanto, we suggest you take this tour in the morning (which allows you to complement this guided walk with our Tour of the Historical Town of Monsanto), or by the end of the day.
Please note that visits in Monsanto can be overly crowded during the weekends, between June and September, and during Easter.
Precautions
Please note that though this walking Tour is meant for the entire family, it can at some points be physically quite demanding. Unfortunately there is no easy way to visit the Castle of Monsanto.
We therefore suggest you always carry with you a bottle of water (there will be no water point along this Tour).
Please also be equipped with good walking shoes when taking this Tour.
Your knees and ankles will thank you for that!
In case of poor GPS signal, which can lead to some tracks not triggering automatically, please open the app and manually play the correct audio track or look at the map to find the next location.
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