The History of the Douro region

The Douro Region is a vast area in the north of Portugal, extending from the emblematic city of Porto and the eastern border of the country, where you can see the fantastic landscape and unique valleys of this region, from the famous Douro river, its fluent that make it even more masterful, and even the hills vineyard Port wine that both make this region famous.

This region includes three World Heritage sites recognised by UNESCO, so there's no shortage of reasons to visit the Douro Valley, one of the most beautiful treasures of Portugal.Speaking of the city “Invicta” from the Port, we can very well speak of the fantastic Historic Centre of Porto, which was built along the banks of the Douro river and overlooking to its mouth, finding a remarkable collection of historic buildings, some of which are directly related to the activity in wine, which witness to the urban development over several centuries. On the opposite bank, in Vila Nova de Gaia, it concentrates the commercial activity of the wine of Porto and its famous wine cellars.

Following the course of the river gold, we come to the Alto Douro wine region. This is a land of traditions and culture, a place of enchantment and mysticism, which extends over an immense area where Nature reigns in perfect harmony with human activity, which has shaped the valley slopes of the river Douro and its tributaries, and organized the production of wine on Thursdays, accessed by roads scenic winding. There are records of wine production in the region with more than two thousand years, but only in 1756 the wine began to organize themselves and to assert itself internationally with the creation of the Demarcated Region of the Douro, the first in the world, a precursor of an alliance between tradition and modernity that remains up to our days. As examples of tradition, is the manual harvest and the treading of the foot, while, by the modernity, it highlights the sort of fitness, a wine all of the properties and the use of the most modern winemaking processes.

Further to the east, in a region of rare beauty where the river Côa intertwines with the Douro river, stands the Site of Pre-historic Rock Art of the Coa River Valley, a vast archaeological heritage that has been millennia in the valley, and that constitutes a unique example of the first manifestations of creation, symbolic of humanity, and the beginning of cultural development, which dates back to the Paleolithic.

Across the three world heritage sites, tucked between the mountains, the Douro river was once rushing furious to the sea, has become the construction of dams on a route the river navigable, regularly traversed by cruise ships and pleasure craft. 

In the wine growing region, the train follows the Douro river in the greater part of its course, constituting, in conjunction with the fluvial navigation, a privileged view of the stunning landscape of the Douro valley.