This Great Walk takes place in the magnificent Serra de Montejunto, starting and finishing in Vila Verde dos Francos and passing through Cabanas de Torres, Carreiro da Senhora, the Dominican Convent, Calçada dos Frades, the Serra de Montejunto Protected Landscape Environmental Interpretation Centre, the Ice Factory and the traditional windmills. Another event not to be missed!

Serra de Montejunto

The Serra de Montejunto belongs to a characteristic structural unit called the "Estremadura Limestone Massif". This geographically discontinuous massif, orientated NE-SW, includes the Sicó, Alvaiázere and Porto de Mós mountain ranges, with the Serra de Montejunto extending south-westwards to the border between the western edge and the Tagus basin. From a geological point of view, the mountain range is predominantly made up of limestone rocks, with typical surface forms, including steep, deep valleys and some small plateaus and depressions, as well as imposing crags, cliffs and rock faces. Acting as a great "sponge for receiving and absorbing" rainwater, which seeps through the numerous cracks and faults, a considerable number of caves and grottoes of varying sizes and shapes have formed underground.

Calçada dos Frades

Built in the 18th century to serve the construction and use of the Convent of Our Lady of the Snows of the Dominican Order. The Calçada dos Frades, discovered in some parts of the Serra de Montejunto, was built at the beginning of the 18th century to serve the construction and use of the Convent of Our Lady of the Snows of the Dominican Order. The necessary building materials, such as stones, stonework, bricks, tiles and decorative materials, such as tiles to line the interior walls, were transported along the Calçada by means of pack animals and carts.

Real Ice Factory

Its construction began in 1741 and cost between 40 and 45 thousand cruzados, a megalomaniac expense for the time, in order to satisfy the great demand for ice that existed throughout the capital. It represented a major advance in the quality and hygiene of the process used to "produce" ice, since it was now made in the factory's tanks and not harvested after the wind had blown it into a heap, as had been the case until then.

Its main purpose was to make up for the systematic shortages in supplies from the Serra do Coentral. Almost everything that is known about the Royal Ice Factory's activities is due to oral tradition, particularly the testimonies of descendants of people who worked in the ice-making industry.

- Vila Verde dos Francos - Cabanas de Torres - Carreiro da Senhora - Dominican Convent - Calçada dos Frades - Windmills - Ice Factory - Natural landscapes -