Pilgrims who pass through the village of Cossourado, in Paredes de Coura, can now benefit from a digital platform, “Via Cossourado”, and interpretive signs about the history of the local stretch of the Camino de Santiago. The initiative, from the Union of Parishes of Cossourado and Linhares, was announced yesterday, September 14, by the Paredes de Coura Municipal Council.
The platform is available at viacossourado.pt, designed mainly for pilgrims on the Portuguese Camino. It includes an interactive map, information on more than two thousand years of local history, as well as useful contacts, including the GNR (National Republican Guard), the Health Center and the parish council. It also includes a registry for pilgrims to record their passage.
The stretch that crosses Cossourado is 4 km long and connects the village to Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia, about 100 km away. It was part of the ancient IV Via Militar Romana (Roman Military Road), a road that linked the present-day cities of Braga and Astorga, in Spain, then called Bracara Augusta and Asturica Augusta. Over the centuries, Roman legions, medieval pilgrims and other visitors traveled this route.
At the highest point of the village stands the Povoado Fortificado de Cossourado (Fortified Settlement), also known as Forte da Cidade (City Fort): an Iron Age hillfort classified as a National Monument. It covers about ten hectares, defended by three lines of walls built centuries before Portugal was founded.
Near the river stand the parish church, the São Bento da Porta Aberta chapel, the Cividade (Iron Age hilltop enclosure) and an old Roman bridge. In neighboring Rubiães, there is a 13th-century church dedicated to São Pedro, also classified as a National Monument, reached by the Roman-medieval bridge that crosses the Coura River.
The new tools are intended to assist those who cross the municipality on the way to Santiago, on a route that, from south to north, links the parishes of Agualonga, Rubiães, and Cossourado and Linhares. For the Paredes de Coura Municipal Council, this project also strengthens the municipality’s connection to the Camino de Santiago and helps boost the local territory and economy.
