Serra do Buçaco

Serra do Buçaco is a mountain range in Portugal, formerly included in the province of Beira Litoral. The highest point in the range is the Cruz Alta at 549 m, which commands a magnificent view over the Serra da Estrela, the Mondego River valley and the Atlantic Ocean.The Serra includes the buildings of a secularized Carmelite monastery, founded in 1628. The convent woods have long been famous for their cypress, plane, evergreen oak, cork and other forest trees, many of which have stood for centuries and attained an immense size. A bull of Pope Gregory XV, anathematizing trespassers and forbidding women to approach, is inscribed on a tablet at the main entrance; another bull, of Pope Urban VIII, threatens with excommunication any person harming the trees. Located in the northwestern corner is the Mata Nacional do Buçaco, an ancient walled arboretum.Towards the close of the 19th century the Serra de Bussaco became one of the regular halting-places for foreign, and especially for British, tourists, on the overland route between Lisbon and Porto. The Palace Hotel of Bussaco, built between 1888 and 1905 in an exuberant Neo-Manueline style, is still a magnet for tourists.