Cachão da Valeira

Cachão da Valeira was a rocky gorge on the Douro where the river narrowed between granite formations, forming rapids that worked like a waterfall. For centuries it was an impassable obstacle: no boat could get upstream past it, which cut the whole Upper Douro off from navigation and from the wine trade. Blasting the rock, and later the dams and the regularisation of the river, erased the cachão. Boats now pass where there was once only white water — but the place remains one of the landmarks of Douro history.