Aldeias Históricas de Portugal

Villages

Furdas or Pig Sties

Monsanto

Monsanto

Formerly spread thoughout the village, the furdas – pig sties – were gradually brought together in this vacant lot and in others, for reasons of public health, lined up in an organic manner along the sides of the trail that heads eastward up to the castle. The furdas, as a whole, follow the traditional model: a shelter, most of the time being round, with dry stone walls and covered with a false dome – a cap formed by rocks that gradually extend in successive horizontal rows until they close together – covered with earth; it has a door that opens into a walled enclosure. In former times, pigs were an important long-term food source, because they are transformed into sausage. Their slaughter – locally called matação – was an important domestic task and the pretext for an annual festive family ritual.