Buçaco Forest () is an ancient, walled
arboretum in the
Centro
Centro may refer to:
Places Brazil
*Centro, Santa Maria, a neighborhood in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
* Centro, Porto Alegre, a neighborhood of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
*Centro (Duque de Caxias), a neighborhood of Duq ...
region of Portugal and home to one of the finest
dendrological collections in Europe. The forest measures 1450 meters by 950 meters and covers an area of 105 hectares; the perimeter wall is approximately in circumference and punctuated by a series of gates, one of which bears the text of 17th-century
papal bulls forbidding women to enter and threatening to excommunicate anyone harming the trees, though neither stipulation is currently legally binding under Portuguese law. More than 250 tree and shrub species grow in the forest, including huge centenarians and exotics introduced by Portuguese mariners during the
Age of Discovery
The Age of Discovery (or the Age of Exploration), also known as the early modern period, was a period largely overlapping with the Age of Sail, approximately from the 15th century to the 17th century in European history, during which seafarin ...
. In 2004 Portugal submitted Buçaco Forest to UNESCO's tentative list of
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
s.
Many of the forest's trees have been discussed in popular and academic literature. In 1634, for example, a
Portuguese scholar authored a collection of poems that mentioned Buçaco's
cypress
Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs of northern temperate regions that belong to the family Cupressaceae. The word ''cypress'' is derived from Old French ''cipres'', which was imported from Latin ''cypressus'', the ...
es; in 1768 an English botanist provoked a 200-year-long debate by claiming one of the forest's cypress varieties originated in
Goa
Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...
; in the late 1990s wine writer
Hugh Johnson visited the arboretum and described a
Tasmanian mountain ash as "surely Europe's most magnificent"; more recently, historian and arborist
Thomas Pakenham included one of the forest's
bunya pines
Bush tucker, also called bush food, is any food native to Australia and used as sustenance by Indigenous Australians, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but it can also describe any native flora or fauna used for culinary or ...
in his book, ''Remarkable Trees of the World''.
Buçaco Forest was once home to
Discalced Carmelites
The Discalced Carmelites, known officially as the Order of the Discalced Carmelites of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel ( la, Ordo Fratrum Carmelitarum Discalceatorum Beatae Mariae Virginis de Monte Carmelo) or the Order of Discalced Carme ...
: the monks built a
convent
A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglic ...
, small chapels and the encircling walls, and tended the arboretum until the
dissolution of the monasteries in 1834. At the end of the 19th century much of the convent was demolished to make way for an extravagant
neo-Manueline
Neo-Manueline is a revival style of architecture which drew from the 16th century Manueline Late Gothic architecture of Portugal. Neo-Manueline constructions have been built across Portugal, Brazil, and the Lusophone world (the former Portuguese ...
palace. The palace was conceived as a retreat for the Portuguese royal family, but after the
Lisbon Regicide
The Lisbon Regicide or Regicide of 1908 ( pt, Regicídio de 1908) was the assassination of King Carlos I of Portugal and the Algarves and his heir-apparent, Luís Filipe, Prince Royal of Portugal, by assassins sympathetic to Republican interests ...
and subsequent ''
coup d'état
A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...
'' it was converted to a luxury hotel, the
Buçaco Palace
The Buçaco Palace is a former convent that today houses a luxury hotel located in the Buçaco mountain range, in the municipality of Mealhada, in central Portugal.José Mattoso História de Portugal - Volume 5 1993 - Page 678 "Palace Hotel do ...
.
Geography and climate
Buçaco Forest is situated on the northwestern tip of the
Serra do Buçaco
Serra do Bussaco ( ) is a mountain range in Portugal, formerly included in the province of Beira Litoral.Lonely Planet Portugal Regis St. Louis, Robert Landon – 2007 p316 Serra do Buçaco The highest point in the range is the Cruz Alta at 549 ...
in Portugal's
Centro
Centro may refer to:
Places Brazil
*Centro, Santa Maria, a neighborhood in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
* Centro, Porto Alegre, a neighborhood of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
*Centro (Duque de Caxias), a neighborhood of Duq ...
region. It covers an area of 105 hectares and is enclosed by a perimeter wall just over 5 kilometers in circumference. Dimensions are 1450 meters by 950 meters; elevation ranges from 190 meters to 547 meters; a prevailing
microclimate
A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often with a slight difference but sometimes with a substantial one. The term may refer to areas as small as a few squ ...
is characterized by mild temperatures, frequent morning fog and precipitation almost double the regional average. The nearest urban centre is
Coimbra
Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of .
The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto Metropolitan Area, Porto, and Bra ...
, an ancient university city and former capital of Portugal; the nearest
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
is
Luso, a spa town renowned for its mineral waters.
History
![Portas de Coimbra](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Portas_de_Coimbra.jpg)
Buçaco Forest was first settled in the 6th century by friars from a nearby
Benedictine
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, foun ...
monastery; five hundred years later the
Bishops of Coimbra took possession of the forest and in 1628 donated it to the Order of
Discalced Carmelites
The Discalced Carmelites, known officially as the Order of the Discalced Carmelites of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel ( la, Ordo Fratrum Carmelitarum Discalceatorum Beatae Mariae Virginis de Monte Carmelo) or the Order of Discalced Carme ...
. The Carmelite monks promptly built a
convent
A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglic ...
, perimeter walls and the first of the forest's ten gates, ''Portas de Coimbra'' (''Coimbra Gate''). Two
papal bulls were issued during this period: the first, dated 1622, prohibited women from entering the forest; the second, dated 1643, threatened to excommunicate anyone found harming the trees. The text of both bulls is engraved on stone tablets affixed to the outer wall of ''Portas de Coimbra''. At the end of the 17th century small chapels representing the
Stations of the Cross were built along the ''Via Sacra'', a steep, winding path that leads from the convent to the forest's highest point, ''Cruz Alta''. The length of the path and distances between chapels were carefully measured to depict Christ's journey from the
Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet ( he, הַר הַזֵּיתִים, Har ha-Zeitim; ar, جبل الزيتون, Jabal az-Zaytūn; both lit. 'Mount of Olives'; in Arabic also , , 'the Mountain') is a mountain ridge east of and adjacent to Jeru ...
to
Calvary.
In September 1810 the tranquility was shattered by the
Battle of Bussaco
The Battle of Buçaco () or Bussaco, fought on 27 September 1810 during the Peninsular War in the Portuguese mountain range of Serra do Buçaco, resulted in the defeat of French forces by Lord Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese Army.
Having o ...
: the future
Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish soldier and Tories (British political party), Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of Uni ...
, commanding an Anglo-Portuguese army of more than 56,000 men, maintained a defensive position on the Serra do Buçaco and succeeded in checking
General Massena's advance into Portugal. Wellington stayed at the convent in Buçaco Forest during the days preceding the battle; an
olive tree
The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...
to which he tethered his horse still stands and is labelled "Wellington's olive tree".
Soon after the
abolition of religious orders in 1834, ownership and management of the forest was transferred to the Administração Geral das Matas do Reino. A period of change ensued: the forest's area was expanded from 90 to 105 hectares; neglected buildings were restored and new, exotic tree species introduced; a staircase leading up to the convent was remodeled into the ''Fonte Fria'' (''Cold Fountain''), a cascading water stairway and one of the forest's most notable architectural features. In 1888 much of the convent was demolished to allow construction of a sumptuous
neo-Manueline
Neo-Manueline is a revival style of architecture which drew from the 16th century Manueline Late Gothic architecture of Portugal. Neo-Manueline constructions have been built across Portugal, Brazil, and the Lusophone world (the former Portuguese ...
palace. The palace was conceived as a retreat for the Portuguese royal family, but after the
Lisbon Regicide
The Lisbon Regicide or Regicide of 1908 ( pt, Regicídio de 1908) was the assassination of King Carlos I of Portugal and the Algarves and his heir-apparent, Luís Filipe, Prince Royal of Portugal, by assassins sympathetic to Republican interests ...
and subsequent ''
coup d'état
A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...
'' it was converted to a luxury hotel, the
Buçaco Palace
The Buçaco Palace is a former convent that today houses a luxury hotel located in the Buçaco mountain range, in the municipality of Mealhada, in central Portugal.José Mattoso História de Portugal - Volume 5 1993 - Page 678 "Palace Hotel do ...
.
In 2004 Portugal submitted Buçaco Forest to UNESCO's tentative list of
World Heritage Sites
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNES ...
. The UNESCO website describes the forest as "the archetype of an eighteenth-century romantic landscape", adding that it "boasts a remarkable botanical and scenic heritage" and is a place of "rare and outstanding beauty".
José Saramago
José de Sousa Saramago, GColSE ComSE GColCa (; 16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010), was a Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony ith which hec ...
, winner of the 1998
Nobel Prize in Literature
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, caption =
, awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature
, presenter = Swedish Academy
, holder = Annie Ernaux (2022)
, location = Stockholm, Sweden
, year = 1901
, ...
, declared, "Buçaco forest demands a whole vocabulary which, once spoken, tells us that there's still everything left to say. You don't describe Buçaco forest. The best thing is to lose yourself in it." In 2009 the forest's present governing body, Fundação Mata do Buçaco, was established to manage, conserve, revitalize and exploit the forest. A year later the European Union's
LIFE programme subsidized an initiative aimed at preserving the oldest segment of the forest and controlling threats posed by invasive, non-indigenous species. The project is known as BRIGHT (Bussaco's Recovery from Invasions Generating Habitat Threats) and scheduled to run until 2016.
Flora
Buçaco Forest has one of the finest
dendrological collections in Europe. More than 250 tree and shrub species grow in the forest, including towering centenarians and exotics introduced by Portuguese navigators during the
age of exploration
The Age of Discovery (or the Age of Exploration), also known as the early modern period, was a period largely overlapping with the Age of Sail, approximately from the 15th century to the 17th century in European history, during which seafari ...
. The forest comprises four distinct landscapes: the arboretum, which forms about 80% of the forest's area; the ''Floresta Relíquia'' (''Forest Relic''), a small, ancient woodland characterized by
laurel
Laurel may refer to:
Plants
* Lauraceae, the laurel family
* Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel
People
* Laurel (given name), people with the given name
* Laurel (surname), people with the surname
* Laurel (mus ...
,
mock privet and species of
oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...
; the ''Pinhal do Marquês'', an area of about 13 hectares dominated by
maritime pines; and the late 19th-century hotel gardens and ''Vale dos Fetos'' (''Valley of the Ferns''). The arboretum's early history is not known, but chronicles kept by the Carmelites indicate that afforestation may have begun long before they founded their convent in 1628.
The forest's most abundant tree is the
Mexican cypress, a species also known as the Bucaco Cedar or Cedar of Goa. The tree was first mentioned by Portuguese scholar
Bernarda de Lacerda in her ''Soledades de Buçaco'', a collection of poems published in 1634. In 1768 English botanist
Philip Miller
Philip Miller FRS (1691 – 18 December 1771) was an English botanist and gardener of Scottish descent. Miller was chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden for nearly 50 years from 1722, and wrote the highly popular ''The Gardeners Dictio ...
provoked a 200-year-long debate after claiming the tree had been introduced to Portugal from
Goa
Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...
. Miller's claim was formally rebutted in 1993 when a paper published by the
International Association for Plant Taxonomy reclassified the species as a native of Mexico. Ten years later further research into the tree's origins was undertaken using DNA tests: results showed that while the Mexican cypress is more likely to have been introduced to the forest from Mexico than India, the supporting data is "not very strong".
A map issued by the Fundação Mata do Buçaco lists 86 "remarkable trees" in the forest, one of which is a
Tasmanian mountain ash growing near the hotel. English wine writer
Hugh Johnson commented on the tree in his book ''Hugh Johnson in the Garden'', opining that it is "surely Europe's most magnificent". In 2010 a researcher from Australia's
Currency Creek Arboretum
270px, Eucalyptus_deanei.html"_;"title="Dean_Nicolle_and_Eucalyptus_deanei">Dean_Nicolle_and_Eucalyptus_deanei_
image:Eucalyptus-20070325-013.jpg.html" ;"title="Eucalyptus_deanei_.html" ;"title="Eucalyptus_deanei.html" ;"title="Dean Nicolle and ...
measured the tree during a field trip and concluded that it had the largest diameter of any
eucalypt
Eucalypt is a descriptive name for woody plants with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australasia:
''Eucalyptus'', ''Corymbia'', ''Angophora'', '' Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...
he and his team had examined in Portugal. Other notable specimens listed on the map include the olive tree to which Wellington tied his horse, a
bunya pine
''Araucaria bidwillii'', commonly known as the bunya pine and sometimes referred to as the false monkey puzzle tree, is a large evergreen coniferous tree in the plant family Araucariaceae. It is found naturally in south-east Queensland Aust ...
featured in
Thomas Pakenham's 2002 tome, ''Remarkable Trees of the World'', and fine examples of
cedar
Cedar may refer to:
Trees and plants
*''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae
*Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar
Places United States
* Cedar, Arizona
* ...
,
ginkgo
''Ginkgo'' is a genus of non-flowering seed plants. The scientific name is also used as the English name. The order to which it belongs, Ginkgoales, first appeared in the Permian, 270 million years ago, and is now the only living genus with ...
and
sequoia.
Buçaco Forest's
camellias
''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are more than 220 described species, with some controver ...
were discussed in a paper presented at the 2014 Pontevedra International Camellia Congress. The paper, ''Buçaco and Villar d'Allen: A Story of the Camelliomania in Portugal'', described the introduction of 30 cultivars to the forest from a garden in
Porto
Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...
in 1894. Camellias were very popular in Europe during the 19th century, inspiring gardeners, wealthy collectors and the novel, ''
La Dame aux Camélias
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States.
La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* La (musical note), or A, the sixth note
* "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...
''.
Fauna
A PhD thesis published in 2011, ''Vertebrate Diversity in the Bussaco Mountain and Surrounding Areas'', documented research undertaken in the Serra do Buçaco and identified 56 species of mammals, birds, bats and amphibians found in Buçaco Forest.
Windstorm Gong
On 19 January 2013 a cyclone named Windstorm Gong struck Portugal, causing widespread disruption. Almost 1 million homes were left without electricity; thousands of trees were brought down and hundreds of greenhouses destroyed. Portugal's ''
Público'' newspaper reported extensive damage to Buçaco Forest, including the loss of a cypress known as ''Cedro de São José'', a much-loved tree believed to have been planted in 1644. A press release issued by the forest's governing body 2 years later summarized the aftermath: more than 40% of the forest was seriously affected by the storm; religious buildings dating back to the days of the Carmelites suffered structural damage; of the forest's 86 remarkable trees, 10 were felled and 6 critically harmed. The press release also discussed ongoing rehabilitation and reforestation, the inauguration of a bridge across a small stream (the bridge was constructed from a cypress brought down in the storm), and the formation of a private sector partnership to produce furniture from fallen trees.
Citations
Sources
PhD theses
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Books
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Journals, conference papers and reports
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Newsletters and newspapers
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Press releases, fact sheets and maps
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Websites
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External links
Mata Nacional do Bussaco – Património Vivo, Natureza Mágica (YouTube)Projecto BRIGHT – Proteger a Mata do Buçaco das Plantas Invasoras (YouTube)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bucaco Forest
Forests of Portugal
Tourist attractions in Centro Region, Portugal
Arboreta
National monuments in Aveiro District