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Buçaco Forest () is an ancient, walled
arboretum An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...
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 Du ...
region of Portugal and home to one of the finest dendrological collections in Europe. The forest measures and covers an area of ; the perimeter wall is approximately in circumference and punctuated by a series of gates, one of which bears the text of 17th-century
papal bull A papal bull is a type of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by the pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the leaden Seal (emblem), seal (''bulla (seal), bulla'') traditionally appended to authenticate it. History Papal ...
s 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 (), also known as the Age of Exploration, was part of the early modern period and overlapped with the Age of Sail. It was a period from approximately the 15th to the 17th century, during which Seamanship, seafarers fro ...
. In 2004 Portugal submitted Buçaco Forest to UNESCO's tentative list of
World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
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 from the ''Cupressus'' genus of the '' Cupressaceae'' family, typically found in temperate climates and subtropical regions of Asia, Europe, and North America. The word ''cypress'' ...
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 bound by 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 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 Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel () or the Order of Discalced Carmelites (; abbreviation, abbrev.: OCD; sometimes called in earlier times, ), is a Catho ...
: the monks built a
convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...
, 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, Lusophone world (the former P ...
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 () was the assassination of Carlos I of Portugal, King Carlos I of Portugal and the Algarves and his heir-apparent, Luís Filipe, Prince Royal of Portugal, by assassins sympathetic to Republicanism, Republic ...
and subsequent ''
coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...
'' 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 Du ...
region. It covers an area of and is enclosed by a perimeter wall just over in circumference. Dimensions are ; elevation ranges from ; a prevailing
microclimate A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often slightly but sometimes substantially. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square m ...
is characterized by mild temperatures, frequent morning fog and precipitation almost double the regional average. The nearest urban centre is
Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ), officially the City of Coimbra (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2021 census was 140,796, in an area of . The fourth-largest agglomerated urban area in Po ...
, an ancient university city and former capital of Portugal; the nearest
parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
is Luso, a spa town renowned for its mineral waters.


History

Buçaco Forest was first settled in the 6th century by friars from a nearby
Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...
monastery; five hundred years later the
Bishops of Coimbra A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...
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 Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel () or the Order of Discalced Carmelites (; abbreviation, abbrev.: OCD; sometimes called in earlier times, ), is a Catho ...
. The Carmelite monks promptly built a
convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...
, perimeter walls and the first of the forest's ten gates, ''Portas de Coimbra'' (''Coimbra Gate''). Two
papal bulls A papal bull is a type of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by the pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the leaden seal ('' bulla'') traditionally appended to authenticate it. History Papal bulls have been in use at ...
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 The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Via Dolorosa, Way of Sorrows or the , are a series of fourteen images depicting Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ on the day of Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and acc ...
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 (; ; both lit. 'Mount of Olives'; in Arabic also , , 'the Mountain') is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem, east of and adjacent to Old City of Jerusalem, Jerusalem's Old City. It is named for the olive, olive ...
to
Calvary Calvary ( or ) or Golgotha () was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, Jesus was crucified. Since at least the early medieval period, it has been a destination for pilgrimage. ...
. In September 1810 the tranquility was shattered by the
Battle of Bussaco The Battle of Buçaco () or Bussaco was fought on 27 September 1810 during the Peninsular War in the Portuguese mountain range of Serra do Buçaco, resulting in the defeat of French forces by Lord Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese Army. Havin ...
: the future
Duke of Wellington Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they ar ...
, 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'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...
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 ; 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, Lusophone world (the former P ...
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 () was the assassination of Carlos I of Portugal, King Carlos I of Portugal and the Algarves and his heir-apparent, Luís Filipe, Prince Royal of Portugal, by assassins sympathetic to Republicanism, Republic ...
and subsequent ''
coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...
'' 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 World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...
. 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 (; 16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010) was a Portuguese people, Portuguese writer. He was the recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony ith which ...
, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature, 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 The LIFE programme (French: L’Instrument Financier pour l’Environnement) is the European Union's funding instrument for the environment and climate action. The general objective of LIFE is to contribute to the implementation, updating and d ...
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 Discovery The Age of Discovery (), also known as the Age of Exploration, was part of the early modern period and overlapped with the Age of Sail. It was a period from approximately the 15th to the 17th century, during which Seamanship, seafarers fro ...
. 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 Quercus">oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...
; 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">Cupressus lusitanica">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 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 bound by 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 The International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) is an organization established to promote an understanding of plant biodiversity, facilitate international communication of research between botanists, and oversee matters of uniformity and ...
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, Dean Nicolle and Eucalyptus deanei image:Eucalyptus-20070325-013.jpg">270px, ''Eucalyptus conferruminata'' The Currency Creek Arboretum (CCA; or Currency Creek Arboretum Eucalypt Research Centre) is located in the Australian state of ...
measured the tree during a field trip and concluded that it had the largest diameter of any
eucalypt Eucalypt is any woody plant with Capsule (fruit), capsule fruiting bodies belonging to one of seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australia: ''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 (), banya or bunya-bunya, is a large evergreen coniferous tree in the family Araucariaceae which is Endemism, endemic to Australia. Its natural range is southeast Queensland with two ver ...
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, assigned to the gymnosperms. The scientific name is also used as the English common name. The order to which the genus belongs, Ginkgoales, first appeared in the Permian, , and ''Ginkgo'' is n ...
and sequoia. Buçaco Forest's
camellias ''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in tropical and subtropical areas in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are more than 220 descri ...
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 (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...
in 1894. Camellias were very popular in Europe during the 19th century, inspiring gardeners, wealthy collectors and the novel, ''
La Dame aux Camélias ''The Lady of the Camellias'' (), sometimes called ''Camille'' in English, is a novel by Alexandre Dumas ''fils''. First published in 1848 and subsequently adapted by Dumas for the stage, the play premiered at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in P ...
''.


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 *
Alt URL
* Books * * * * * * * Journals, conference papers and reports * * * * * * * * * * Newsletters and newspapers * * * Press releases, fact sheets and maps *
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* * *
Alt URL
Websites * * * * *


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