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Fort of Bragandelo and village of Extremo, Arcos de Valdevez, Alto Minho, North of Portugal © José M. Costa-Garcia
The place of Extremo, in the municipality of Arcos de Valdevez, in the heart of Alto Minho, North of Portugal, is now a living laboratory where researchers and the local community come together to study the landscape and promote the sustainability of this territory’s heritage. The object of IN2PAST’s exploratory project Land-CST – From Land to Land. Connections for Sustainable Territories (2023-2024), it is the chosen destination for the 3rd Field Trip of our associate laboratory, which will take place on January 25th, 2025, as part of the 5th National Meeting of IN2PAST Researchers.
With the support of the Arcos de Valdevez City Council, the Portela and Extremo Civil Parish Council and the Interreg-Sudoe Cultur-Monts project, IN2PAST researchers, the inhabitants of Extremo and other local agents will climb the fortified landscape made up of the Forts of Bragandelo and Pereira, and walk through the agrarian space where the Land-CST project was developed, a landscape moulded after the Portuguese Restoration War (1640-1668). They will then visit the Paço da Giela, in Arcos de Valdevez, occupied by the Spanish general Baltazar de Roxas Pantoja during the conflict that followed the Restoration of Portuguese Independence, on December 1st, 1640, and where they will enjoy a communal lunch.
For the past seven years, Extremo has been the setting for a series of research initiatives carried out by the Laboratory of Landscapes, Heritage and Territory (Lab2PT), which has been part of the IN2PAST consortium since 2021, and by the Archaeology Unit of the University of Minho, in close collaboration with the local community and the Arcos de Valdevez City Council, which have resulted in a series of scientific, heritage and educational activities with a strong social component that extends from Public Archaeology to Open Science.
The Land-CST exploratory project, coordinated by Rebeca Blanco-Rotea, Lab2PT –University of Minho / IN2PAST researcher, sought to characterise the fortified defensive system of Extremo, which dates back to the Modern Age (16th to 17th centuries), in order to
analyse its impact on the agrarian system that is believed to post-date the Restoration War.
With the aim of getting to know and understand the bread cycle and the tangible and intangible heritage associated with it, researchers and the local community have transformed this place into a living laboratory where different research, training and sustainable development initiatives come together.
The project also included the development of methodological tools for studying the landscape, always involving the local community, with the intention of applying the generated knowledge to the heritage sustainability of this territory affected by emigration, depopulation and an ageing population.
IN2PAST’s Field Trips take us to non-academic places that researchers inhabit, with the aim of promoting closer ties between the scientists who make up our associate laboratory and who come from different areas of knowledge and from seven research units spread across the country, from Minho to Évora, via Lisbon, as well as between researchers and their societal partners.
The Field Trip to Extremo will be attended by officials from the Portela and Extremo Council and members of the local community, who will then be joined by officials from the Arcos de Valdevez Municipality at Paço da Giela. The learning and experience-sharing walk will be led by Rebeca Blanco-Rotea and Sílvia Maciel, PhD student at Lab2PT – University of Minho / IN2PAST, and the visit to Paço da Giela will be led by Nuno Soares, head of the cultural division at Arcos de Valdevez City Council.
The 5th National Meeting of IN2PAST Researchers, which ends with this activity, begins on January 22nd, in Braga, with a public session at the Rectory of the University of Minho, moving to the Gualtar campus on the 23rd and 24th, where the scientific debate sessions will take place.
8:30 am | Departure from Braga (University of Minho)
Participants will be picked up at Rua da Universidade, before the roundabout on the way up to the campus, at the bus stop
9:45 am | Arrival at Extremo (Arcos de Valdevez)
9:45 – 11 am | Visit to Bragandelo Fort and explanation of the fortified landscape
11 am – 1 pm | Visit to the Pereira Fort/Football Field, descent to the cultivated fields along the Covinhas Path and guided tour of the agricultural area where the Land-CST exploratory project was carried out
1 – 1:30 pm | Journey to Paço da Giela, Arcos de Valdevez
1:30 – 3 pm | Community lunch with projection of images of the results of the Land-CST project and the work with the local community
3 – 3: 30 pm | Guided tour of Paço da Giela
3:30 – 4:30 pm | Return to Braga (Arrival at Gualtar campus, railway station and bus station)
Fields in Extremo, Arcos de Valdevez, Alto Minho, North of Portugal © Gonçalo Machado
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IN2PAST – Associate Laboratory for Research and Innovation in Heritage, Arts, Sustainability and Territory is funded by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I. P. under reference LA/P/0132/2020 (DOI 10.54499/LA/P/0132/2020)
