The Peneda-Gerês National Park is considered by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve. It is one of the biggest natural attractions of Portugal, for the rare and impressive landscape beauty and for the ecological and ethnographic value and for the variety of fauna (bucks, garranos, wolves, birds of prey) and flora (pine, yew, chestnut, oak and several plants medicinal). It extends from the Serra do Gerês, to the South, passing through the Serra da Peneda to the Spanish border.

It includes stretches of the Roman road that connected Braga to Astorga, known as Geira. In the park there are two important pilgrimage centers, the Nossa Senhora da Peneda Sanctuary, a replica of the Bom Jesus de Braga sanctuary, and the São Bento da Porta Aberta sanctuary, a place of great popular devotion.