These holidays days, we'd like you to have a wider
knowledge about our location and the importance
that it has always haD for historical reasons.
Ready to read? 😄
We live beside one of the oldest and most stable borders in Europe. Since Portugal was born in the 12th century, the Troncoso stream marks its most northern borderline. On the other side it is Padrenda and although it has been a point under surveillance, we have always been very close to our neighbours.
Indeed, instead of the fact that authorities have always wanted to watch and tax the movements across the border, it was always kept a close relationship. Here the border doesn´t show natural obstacles and culture and language are very similar between Galician and Portuguese people.
The human relationship was never stopped because of the border and, in fact, much of our population here in Padrenda has its roots in Portugal and also exchanges from one to the other side have allowed to overcome the worst situations. For instance, while the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) many of those who were persecuted could run away through the border line and after war, poverty was less significant here thanks to the colonial Portuguese products: bananas, coffee, sugar cane... which arrived this area across Padrenda as smuggling merchandises, of course. Some years later, the circumstances forced to hide the pass, not for products but for people, when many Portuguese escaped from their enrolment for colonial war in Angola or Mozambique.
By the 21st century circumstances have changed, democracy has been recovered and both countries are integrated in the EU, so the border does not separate us any longer, but it remains well signalised along the beautiful way that the international road is.
Sadly, the route was again closed because of the pandemic during several weeks in 2020 and 2021 too. There is a hope for 2022 that things get really better and the contact between Galicia and Portugal will not be closed again.
These are some pics for you to have a look at:
Padrenda from the Portuguese side