Vila Nova de Foz Côa

In its roots, Vila Nova de Foz Côa finds the Paleolithic man who, with modest artifacts, carved ambitions and projects from his spiritual and material universe into the hardness of the schist, making this sanctuary the largest open-air rock art museum, now a World Heritage Site.

Severe natural landscapes, indelibly marked by the vigorous furrows of its rivers, the Douro and the Côa, which connected the people of this region to the outside world and enabled them to gain their wealth, constitute a scene of grandeur due to the detail with which artists have impressed the vast agricultural fields dotted with friendly towns and villages in this cultural, evolutionary and human landscape that UNESCO distinguished in 2001 as a World Heritage Site.

Elevated to city status on July 12, 1997, to visit Vila Nova de Foz Côa is to rediscover our history, to follow the millenary process that unveils the artistic and cultural heritage in complementarity with the rusticity and scenic beauty that the region contains and that deserves your enjoyment.