Aldeias Históricas de Portugal is a heritage & tourism network for promoting/ preserving 12 historic villages in central Portugal. Piódão is on the list: a medieval village built onto steep terraces in the Serra do Açor mountains at ~700m elevation (📷1). Villagers utilised terraces to support agriculture, herding & bee keeping; their produce was exported by caravan/ ox cart via the royal road at the top of the mountain, which would also bring in salt & fish from the coast. The white lgreja Matriz do Piódão, an 18th C. parish church, contrasts against the darker schist stone of the villager’s houses (📷2). With abodes stacked almost one atop the other, residents are sometimes challenged to maintain a front garden (📷3). They do have a thing for blue doors (📷4); there’s no official reason, but theories include that the colour was initially adopted due to isolation & a limited (blue) paint supply, creating a tradition that has become an iconic look.

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