CORTES DO MEIO
It’s official: Cortes do Meio is the Capital of Natural Swimming Pools in Portugal. The title, registered in 2019, only certifies what is obvious to any visitor.
Resting on the southern slope of Serra da Estrela, Cortes do Meio is nature in its purest state and the waters are its most precious treasure: in addition to the semi-glacier Ribeira das Cortes, which surrounds the village, the village is an inexhaustible source of lakes. , wells and waterfalls – all with fresh, clear and crystalline waters. There are 12 natural pools already signposted (others will be, for now, only accessible to more adventurous hikers), many of them adorned by natural waterfalls, which turn into ice in the harshest winters. There is also the highest waterfall in Portugal (Poço da Cascata, at 1400 meters), with a waterfall of 20 meters. Joining the pools, there are already several marked routes (tracks to go on foot or by mountain bike), giving new life to the paths that, in the past, the people of Cortes do Meio walked barefoot, to supply milk, goats, coal and carqueja city of Covilhã.
Currently, the living conditions of the villagers are less severe, although agriculture and pastoralism are still very much present in the local economy and the goat remains the gastronomic ex-libris of the parish. The village also preserves the typical identity of Beira Baixa, maintaining the cobbled streets and the granite houses adorned with flower boxes. And, visible in any part of the village, the ancestral and vigilant fragões continue, painted by the waters of the stream.