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Religion
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Location of Chaves, Portugal
Map of the Concelho of Chaves
The Rotunda do Monumento The
town of Chaves is located on the crossroads of national highways N2 and
N103. On N3 north it is 10
km (10 min. driving time) to the Spanish border at Feces and another 22
to the small but interesting town of Verin.
On N3 south it is 60 km (55 min. driving time) to the district
capital of Vila Real. On
N103 west it is 127 km (2 hours driving time) to Braga.
On N103 east it is 96 km (1.30 driving time) to Bragança.
These roads are all two-lane tarmac, generally in good condition,
but with deficient vertical and horizontal signposting, and with many
narrow bridges and hairpin curves.
Despite the increasing truck traffic using the Chaves-Vila Real
road, overall road connections are still very bad.
The road linking Chaves to Braga is especially dangerous in the
winter, although the views are breathtaking. All passenger and freight traffic to and from Chaves is carried out by
road transport. There are
two important bus lines, Auto Viação
do Tâmega and Rodonorte,
which link the town to nearby population centers and to major cities on
the coast like Porto and Lisbon. As
mentioned above, long-distance truck traffic passing through the town
has increased greatly. In
the summer, especially, with the influx of immigrants returning from
France in the month of August, traffic can be especially nerve-wracking.
There are plans to build a four-lane highway either from Guimarães
or from Vila Real, but so far
they are just plans sadly evidenced by a dilapidated sign near the
Spanish border which remained in defiant place announcing the future
construction of this highway. The
sign has finally disintegrated and can no longer be seen. Until
1981 there was a railroad that came up from Vila Real.
It had been built in 1928. Faster
and more efficient bus travel spelled its doom, since it used to take 2
hours to travel 60 km. People
say—perhaps with a hint of hyperbole—that they could jump off, run
to a tree to pick some fruit, and still catch the train.
Most of the track has now been pulled up and many of the stations
have been abandoned. There
is also a small airstrip on the outskirts of Chaves with a very limited
use by private planes, most of them of less than recent vintage.
Sometimes in the summer it is used for parachute jumps and for
ultra-light planes. Helicopters
and planes carrying water to put out forest fires also use the strip in
the hot summer months, but most of the time it is used for grazing sheep.
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