RIO DE ONOR PEDDY-PAPER

QR CODE 2 · CASA DO TOURO

The Bull House

The Bull House, inaugurated at the end of 2018, is a museum space dedicated to the history and culture of Rio de Onor. The designation and installation of this space takes place in the building that originally housed the village bull, which was also, in distant times, communal.

Divided into two floors, the Bull House deals with themes such as communalism, the governance of the Council, the people’s bull, and the children’s festivals, which, using new technologies, transport us to these realities of yesteryear. Thus, it is possible for all visitors to learn all the details that distinguish the village of Rio de Onor and that make it unique at the national level.

On the upper floor, it is possible to contemplate the Justice Rod, a tradition rooted and preserved in the memory of the people, which can be seen in the rural administration, exercised by two stewards appointed by the Council, where it, always present, ensures compliance with the rules established in the village, serving to record the application of fines, often paid in measures of wine or olive oil. This rod was divided in half, symbolizing the two sides of the river. Each family has a notch, and each transgression is marked with a symbol on the respective family’s side. A transgression symbolized a trip to the council, which would determine the amount of wine to be paid as a fine.

QR CODE 4 · FRONTEIRA

The Border

There are places where the border is just a line on the map. In Rio de Onor, that line physically divides a village into two countries, Portugal and Spain, but its inhabitants have never let it divide their lives. In this small village, Portuguese and Spaniards have shared ovens, farmland, and herds for centuries, in a model of community life unique in the Iberian Peninsula.

Rio de Onor is bisected by the international border between Portugal and Spain. The Spanish part is officially distinguished as Rihonor de Castilla, but the inhabitants of the two parts do not distinguish themselves as two different settlements; they call themselves “the people above” and “the people below.”

There have been several attempts to separate these villages. Franco and Salazar tried, and shortly after April 25th, the villages were separated by padlocks, but even that didn’t work. Even during COVID-19, the governments of Portugal and Spain recognized the unique characteristics of these two villages and allowed them to cross the border for two hours on Wednesdays and Saturdays (from 9 am to 11 am), so that farmers with land in the neighboring country could take care of them.

QR CODE 6 · FORJA

Forge

The community forge of Rio de Onor is an old communal workshop where the community shared tools and crafted cutlery and metalwork. It was the space where the community blacksmith worked and where residents repaired agricultural implements and iron tools used in the village’s daily life. The forge, along with the communal oven and mills, forms part of the heritage that reflects the traditional and shared way of life of this village in the Trás-os-Montes region.