Peneda-Gerês National Park

Peneda-Gerês, known simply as Gerês, is the oldest protected area in Portugal and still the only national park in the country, created in May 1971. It covers 695.9 square kilometres across the districts of Viana do Castelo, Braga and Vila Real in the Norte region, running up to the Spanish border where it meets the Baixa Limia–Serra do Xurés natural park on the other side. Granite, oak woodland and long river valleys make up most of it, and the villages inside the boundary are still working ones rather than preserved.