Granitic Mountains And Deforested Hills Of Peneda-Gerês National Park In Northern Portugal Stock Photo

The Peneda-Gerês National Park Portuguese: Parque Nacional da Peneda-Gerês, also known simply as Gerês, is the only national park in Portugal. It is located in the Norte region, in the northwest of Portugal, specifically in the districts of Viana do Castelo, Braga, and Vila Real. The granitic rocks that dominate most of the park’s landscape were deposited during the process of continental collision that brought together the lower Iberian peninsula with Europe, between 380 million and 275 million years. Sedimentary layers laid down between 435 and 408 Ma Silurian epoch were deformed and metamorphosed into schists, greywackes and quartzites. In ancient times, most of the park’s area was covered by oak forests, but nowadays the park’s forest cover has been decimated by centuries of overgrazing, logging and forest fires. Even now, almost every year there are huge fires within the park’s core are or its surroundings.