Paiva Gorge

Geossítio 36 Paiva Gorge

The “Garganta do Paiva” corresponds to a segment of the River Paiva where the bed becomes narrower and extends from the Alvarenga Bridge to Vau (G30). This bridge, dating back to the 18th century, was built by order of Queen Maria I in 1971. It is made up of two full-turn arches, 42 meters long and built of stonework. Over the bridge, you can see, downstream, the valley embedded in abrupt granite walls, which curiously contrasts with the much more open valley upstream of this bridge. This bottleneck is due to the greater resistance of the Alvarenga granite to weathering and erosion when compared to the metasedimentary rocks upstream of the bridge, in a phenomenon of differential erosion. The steep rocky walls of this geosite are also rich in biodiversity, with lime-green coloured patches corresponding to the Acospora hilaris lichen (an indicator of a Mediterranean climate). The natural fissures in the granite rock are also a refuge for countless birds of prey that fly over the Paiva Valley. The area corresponding to this geosite is also a classic of whitewater in Portugal, with challenging rapids for rafting and kayaking enthusiasts.

Este geossítio faz parte do itinerário C: Paiva, the surprising valley.
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Informação Geológica

The Alvarenga granite falls within the domain of late-F3 biotite syn-orogenic granitoids. Its genesis may be related to shear zones, and its age is put at 306-311 million years, according to studies from the 1990s. The metasediments are intensely metamorphosed by the contact with the Alvarenga Granite. They are the oldest rocks in the Arouca Geopark, around 600 million years old, belonging to the Dúrico-Beirão Supergroup, historically referred to as the Schist-Grauváquico Complex, which includes schists and grauvaques, testifying to the deposition of sediments of different composition and granulometry, in a marine environment near the base of the Gondwana paleocontinent.