The “ Trilho do Castelo” (Castle Trail) is a small route [PR] footpath which is part of Municipal Hiking routes of Carrazeda de Ansiães, marked and signed according with the European and national guidelines. This route starts in the parish of Lavandeira, more precisely at the parish church of Santa Eufemia. This church is a seventeenth-century temple of elongated plan, preceded by a mannerist porch supported by 12 Tuscan columns. The interior is richly decorated in baroque style, keeping the ceiling in false vault, with painted panelled ceiling representing in the nave, scenes of Christ's life, the Virgin and the saints and in the main chapel the tree of Jesse. Following the centre of the village of Lavandeira we climb towards the Castle of Ansiães, by the old pavement that leads us to the village gate. The Castle of Ansiães is an ancient medieval fortified village whose history has developed continuously from the chalcolithic period until 1734, when the county seat of Ansiães was moved to Carrazeda. Inside the castle we find the Church of S. Salvador, a Romanesque church whose construction can be placed chronologically around the XIII century. The originality of this monument is based essentially in its tympanum "Pantocrator", whose iconography "Cristo em Majestade” is the most complete example of Portuguese Romanesque style. Leaving the castle, by the gate of S. Francisco, we start going down by the asphalt road, following the path that leads us to the Casa de Selores. This manor house whose construction dates back to the XVII century, it is classified as a “Imóvel de Interesse Público” (Property of Public Interest) and consists of three different parts, the chapel, the house and the porched balcony. A few meters away there is the parish church of Selores with its magnificent baroque altar of gilt woodwork. Selores is a parish located in a vineyard region, whose agricultural culture and its polichromy confers and values the surrounding landscape. Leaving this village we go along the cobbled path up to an asphalt path that leads us again to the village Lavandeira where our trail began.
Location: Carrazeda de Ansiães
Location: Carrazeda de Ansiães
