SOAJO GRANARIES
Arcos de Valdevez
This is one of the largest communitarian threshing-ground constituted by 24 stone granaries standing on granite.
The most ancient one goes back to 1782. These granite monuments were built at a time when corn started being grown on a regular basis and they were used for the protection of cereal from storms and rodents.
You can see the sacredness given to the site due to crosses on top of granaries, as a form of divine protection, as for local people their crops were often the only mean of community survival.
Some of these granaries are still used by the villagers.