Stone houses
Schist and slab roofs.
Jorgeferr — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Cidônio Rinaldi da Silva — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Cidônio Rinaldi da Silva — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Cidônio Rinaldi da Silva — CC BY-SA 4.0
Piódão is a small mountain village in the Arganil municipality of central Portugal, built on a slope of the Serra do Açor about 50 km east of Coimbra in a straight line. It is the seat of a civil parish that had only 120 residents in the 2021 census. The village first appears in Portugal's first national census in 1527 as a small farmstead with just two residents, and it became a parish of its own in 1676. It belongs to the network of Historic Villages of Portugal, and the whole village has been classified as a Property of Public Interest since 1978. The houses climb the hillside in tight rows, with walls of dark schist, roofs of stone slabs, and wooden doors and windows painted blue. Terraced fields and woods of chestnut, olive and pine surround the village, and the way the lit houses look at night is one of the things the place is known for. Visitors wander the narrow stone lanes that climb between the houses, photograph the village from the road opposite, and some walk the mountain trails to neighbouring villages. The road in is winding and mountainous, so drive slowly.
Schist and slab roofs.
Painted wood.
To nearby villages.
Piódão, Arganil municipality, Portugal
Winding and mountainous; drive slowly.
Yes, the village is known for how it looks lit up.