Two major rivers cross this region: the Mondego, which rises in the heart of the Upper Beira, glides gently past Coimbra and Montemor-o-Velho and flows out to sea at Figueira da Foz, and the Vouga which, from the Lapa Hills, drops down to the plains of the amphibious city of Aveiro, giving rise to that vast system of lagoons, rivers and estuary that is known as the Ria.
The feature that most distinguishes (or distinguished) Beira Litoral from Portugal's other regions is precisely the Aveiro Ria and the beach seine net fishing that, carried on all along the sea shore, gave sustenance during centuries to a good part of the population of the coastal area and of the nearby rural parts.
In the words of José Manuel Fernandes, "Few places in Portugal have resulted from so intimate an association between man and nature, have required so profound a symbiosis to be built up. The more so since this is the newest part of Portugal… It consists of farmland built up through years and years of effort, at the cost of much toing and froing by the moliceiros (seaweed-gathering boats) and of infinite care in mixing the seaweed with the sand to make a soil that did not exist. The joyful, verdant Ria was an epic no less difficult that the terraces of the Douro River".
Publisher: Maurício Abreu Lda
Production and Photography: Maurício Abreu
Texts: Álvaro Salema, José Manuel Fernandes
Miguel de Unamuno, Ramalho Ortigão, Raul Brandão
Design: Flukstudio
English version by Peter Ingham
ISBN: 978-972-95897-8-2
Size: 22 x 16 cm; 120 pages
116 colour photographs
