The Montesinho Natural Park (PNM, Parque Natural de Montesinho) is a protected area located in the municipalities of Vinhais and Bragança, in the administrative
NUT Alto Trás-os-Montes (PTlI8), the mountainous region of northeast Portugal.
It was created in 1979 and consists of 748 km2 of natural wooded landscape and
traditional mountain agricultural landscape, with highly variable gradients. PNM
lies in the vast northeast Trás-os-Montes plateau, with average altitude around 750-900 111, which is pari of the Iberian Meseta northern block (Medeiros. 1987; Ribeiro
et aI., 1987). However, in PNM elevation ranges more than 1,000 Ill, from the lowest
point in the River Monte (436 m). its western border, to the top of Montesinho, at
1,487 m. The main altitudinal belts correspond also to the main landforms found in the area.
