Designated in 1971

Peneda-Gerês, the only National Park in Portugal, is located in the northwest of the country. It stretches along the border with Spain and includes areas of Melgaço, Arcos de Valdevez, Ponte da Barca, Terras de Bouro and Montalegre municipalities. The highest point of this granite mountain area is Nevosa (1545 m). Peneda-Gerês includes the Castro Laboreiro plateau, the Peneda, Soajo, Amarela and Gerês mountain ranges and the Mourela plateau. The proximity of the ocean, and different geological characteristics and altitudes, create the conditions for a number of microclimates which have led to the development of a highly diverse vegetation. The oak woods of Quercus spp., together with holly Ilex aquifolium, strawberry tree Arbutus unedo, yew Taxus baccata and species like the fern Woodwardia radicans and the iris Iris boissieri make the Park highly interesting from a botanical and landscape point of view. Peneda-Gerês also hosts a distinctive and numerous fauna, including the golden eagle Aquila chrysaetos, Iberian wolf Canis lupus, roe deer Capreolus capreolus, otter Lutra lutra, Pyrenean desman Galemys pyrenaicus and a small population of horses Equus caballus, the last Portuguese-Galician members of this breed living in the wild.

Humans have lived in the Park region since the Neolithic period. This occupation has left remains of prehistoric settlements such as the megalithic burial sites of Castro Laboreiro and Mourela plateaux. Other important monuments include eighteen mamoas (stone dolmens with cairns and tumuli) at Britelo and the important burial site with dolmens known as Antas do Mezio. There are also Celtic Iron Age dwellings and hillforts at Calcedonia (Terras de Bouro) and Outeiro (Montalegre), the great Roman Via Nova known as Geira (the Roman historian Antoninus referred to this road as itinerary XVIII) and a series of medieval castles, of which Castro Laboreiro, Lindoso and Montalegre are the most important examples (13th century). Medieval churches, such as the Santa Maria das Júnias monastery, ancient bridges, mills,  wolf-traps (fojos), huge rows of beehives (silhas) and the espigueiros (granaries) at Lindoso and Soajo (18th century) are also interesting examples of the cultural richness of this region.

The high plateaux of the Amarela and Peneda mountains, where rye is cultivated and where the cattle can find abundant pasture, are also an example of adaptation of these rural populations to the adverse conditions found here.