• The Kingdom of Seagulls. Beyond the embrace of the houses in the Ribeira of poets and painters, there are still seagulls beneath the bridges—where the words of Eugénio de Andrade wave goodbye—bidding farewell to the boats in the name of the sea, and landing on the sandy shores, leaving behind the salty breath that dissolves into the river.

    Downstream Dam: -- Km: 0
    Upstream Dam: Crestuma Lever Km: 21.7


  • The Meeting of Rivers

    In the land of the Coalmen, where black swans once descended to Porto, laden with warmth and comfort, the lampreys now swim upstream for their feast. Meanwhile, the riverbed emerges with every bend, framed by granite, where communities are born and offer their lives to the river.

    Downstream Dam: Crestuma Lever Km: 21.7
    Upstream Dam: Carrapatelo Km: 65

  • The Wine Country

    Granite passes the baton to schist, as the mountains seen from Torres through Eça’s monocle become hills, now cloaked in vineyards. This is also the “Ungrateful Land” of João de Araújo Correia, the ancient birthplace of boatmen and sailors, of barges and Rabelos, watched over by the gaze of hoes or by cherry trees in bloom.

    Downstream Dam: Carrapatelo Km: 65
    Upstream Dam: Bagaúste Km: 105


  • The Douro of the Estates

    Around the houses that shaped history are the vineyards stretching towards the waters; they are bodies laid bare, covered by grapes born from the stones—lands worked by humans—to offer the world the ambrosia of the gods with a taste of "sun in a bottle." The river is the serpent of light in Miguel Torga’s gaze, where the flowing aromas of must, rockrose, and rosemary merge; history is written on the transparency of the waters, in paragraphs interrupted by the keel of a boat or the whistle of the train of time.

    Downstream Dam: Bagaúste Km: 105
    Upstream Dam: Valeira Km: 144.8


  • The Territory of the Herons

    It is the arrival at the other Douro, where the noises of silence envelop us while the shadows of the cliffs embrace us; the eagles guard our passage through the rapids, where the river swallowed the baron who charted its quirks—Joseph James Forrester. Meanwhile, the herons, eye to eye, impose the rest and serenity of their territory upon us.

    Downstream Dam: Valeira Km: 144.8
    Upstream Dam: Pocinho Km: 180.5

  • The Red Lands of Junqueiro
    The soil is iron, red as the blood of those who work it; the wild nature stirs the gaze, adhered to the skin of the stones where the message of men from 20,000 years ago remains—the Rock Art of Côa. Meanwhile, the olive trees, guardians of time, and the white song of the almond trees—smiles of the poor under the gaze of the poet Junqueiro.

    Downstream Dam: Pocinho Km: 180.5
    Upstream Dam: -- Km: 0