Vila Real's Festa de São Pedro: Fireworks, Folk Music and Douro Wine

Vila Real is a quiet city for most of the year, tucked between the Corgo river valley and the edge of the Douro wine region, but at the end of June it wakes up loudly. The Festa de São Pedro fills the streets around the old town with stalls selling grilled sardines, roasted chestnuts and cold wine, while strings of coloured lights are hung above the crowds. Folk groups in traditional dress perform in the main squares, and by night there is almost always a concert or a bombo drum group keeping the energy going until the small hours. The feast day itself, on the 29th, is usually marked with a bigger fireworks display, and it is worth arriving early to grab a spot on one of the bridges over the Corgo for the best view.

What makes this festival feel different from other summer arraiais in the north is how closely it sits next to the region's most famous landmark, the Mateus Palace. Even if you only know its baroque facade from the label of Mateus rosé wine, seeing it in person is another thing entirely. The formal gardens, with their clipped cedar tunnel and geometric hedges, are worth a slow wander on their own, and the palace interior gives a good sense of how a noble family lived in this corner of Trás-os-Montes centuries ago. It sits just outside the city, close enough that you could easily fit it into the same day as the evening's festivities.

Vila Real's real advantage is its position at the meeting point of two river valleys. The Corgo runs right through the city, while a short drive south brings you into the terraced hillsides of the Douro proper, where family-run quintas produce the port and table wines the region is known for. Several estates open their doors for tastings and cellar visits, and many have views over the river that are reason enough to stop even without a glass in hand. Coming during festa season means you can spend the afternoon among the vines and still make it back for the evening's music and fireworks.

For those who want a change of pace from wine and crowds, the Alvão Natural Park lies just north of the city and offers a completely different landscape of granite outcrops, waterfalls and shepherd villages. The Fisgas de Ermelo waterfall is the park's best known sight, dropping in tiers through a dramatic gorge, and there are marked trails of varying difficulty for those who want to explore further. It is a good reminder that Trás-os-Montes is not only about vineyards, and a morning hike here pairs nicely with a slower festival evening afterwards.

No visit to the Festa de São Pedro is complete without trying a covilhete, a small savoury pastry stuffed with meat that locals treat almost like a festival snack food, sold hot from paper bags at the stalls. Pair it with a glass of local red or a chilled vinho verde and you have a fairly accurate taste of what this city is about, unpretentious food, good wine close at hand and a community that clearly enjoys celebrating together. Between the music, the palace gardens and the wine estates just outside town, Vila Real manages to pack a surprising amount of variety into a single summer trip.

Related reading on Touristic: Feira de São Mateus: Viseu's Ancient Fair of Wine, Crafts and Music, Romaria da Agonia: Viana do Castelo's Great Summer Festival, Carnaval de Torres Vedras: Portugal's Most Portuguese Carnival.