When it comes to traveling, we may not do it that much, but we love to discover unique places. And we think that this time we hit the jackpot. We have discovered, thanks to the lovely internet people, what we see as the real life Flintstones Village. But don’t get us wrong, we mean no disrespect. We don’t mean that this village is stuck in the stone age by no means. But it’s design can literally be considered from the stone age.
Flintstones Village – all made out of stone
This village is known as Monsanto and is part of the parish Monsanto e Idanha-a-Velha, established in 2013. It is a historic village in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal and it is popularly known as “the most Portuguese village of Portugal”. From the pictures below you will see why this is. We, personally, fell in love at the sight of this village and it took only a few glances at the pictures to put it on our bucket list.
But let’s talk about it’s unique features and why is this village so special. As you will see from the photos, the village of Monsanto was well thought of to be built as part of its surroundings. And they may have taken this a bit literally. First of all, all of the structures, homes, and even streets of this village are built from rocks taken from the hill that is sits on. This gives it a beautiful sense of belonging in the overall picture of the area. But the builders of this village have taken this even further. Because instead of clearing off what others might have considered an impediment, they were smart and conscious about it. They have made it part of their design. And even though this may not have been their original intention, the finished product is an amazing example of respect for nature. And more so, intelligent building by using your surroundings properly.
You can see that the streets are built around the rocks and alignment of the hill. Almost as if they listened to the hill when placing them. There was no need to measure. The houses are built on, under, or even part of immense rocks that are now a feature of their architecture. And the entire village seems to be a child of the hill, rather than an imposing structure on it. The end result is a lovely relationship between man and nature that you rarely see nowadays in any other projects. So we hope you enjoy and check out this wonderful village for yourselves. For now, we leave you with just a few images to soak your eyes with.
