Monção - Portugal

Monção, Melgaço, Valença, and V.N. of Cerveira are four Portuguese villages that share several aspects, both in terms of geography and history, and in economic and cultural terms. These four Portuguese villages are county seats and are located in the district of Viana do Castelo, in the Minho region, on the left bank of the river Minho, a natural border that separates them from Galicia. As frontier villages, they developed around their walls, which protected them from enemy attacks. In fact, they were all walled between the 16th and 19th centuries. XII and XIV, forming part of the Alto Minho defensive line in the stretch between the mouth of the river Minho, at the level of Caminha and Melgaço. As regards the economy, it is necessary to emphasize, as a characteristic of this county, the distillation of wine spirit.