The Estrada Nacional 2, Portugal from top to bottom

From Chaves to Faro through the interior

The N2 sets out from Chaves, a few kilometres from Galicia, and ends in Faro, facing the lagoon. In between lie 739 kilometres and eleven of the country’s eighteen districts: it is Portugal’s longest national road. It links up the regions of the interior. A motorway often shadows it, so follow the signs for the EN2.

The landscape changes every day. In the north lie the vineyards of the Douro. In the centre, the Pinhal Interior lines up pines, eucalyptus and schist villages; the fire of June 2017 hit it hard around Pedrógão Grande. Since 1954, the N2 has crossed the Zêzere there at the Cabril dam; this section is closed in 2026. At Vila de Rei, a marker shows the halfway point of the N2, near the geodesic centre of mainland Portugal, on the Picoto da Melriça.

Chaves, at kilometre zero, was the Romans’ Aquae Flaviae, a town of hot springs. Its bridge over the Tâmega, completed under Trajan, still bears two inscribed columns. Further south, the Vidago Palace, commissioned by King Carlos I, opened on 6 October 1910, the day after the Republic was proclaimed. The road dates from the 1945 national road plan. Downgraded section by section, it was revived in 2016 by the municipalities along its route. Travellers get a passport stamped at each stop.

In Viseu, the cathedral shares its square with the museum of Grão Vasco, a great 16th-century Portuguese painter.

To the south, Salazar was born at Santa Comba Dão. Some twenty kilometres away, the house of Aristides de Sousa Mendes has been a museum since 2024. As consul in Bordeaux, he issued thousands of visas in June 1940 against Lisbon’s orders.

The Alentejo, then the Algarve

Beyond the Tagus begins the montado, an airy woodland of cork oaks and holm oaks. The Escoural cave is the only decorated Palaeolithic cave known in Portugal. Uncovered in 1963 by quarry blasting, it can be visited by booking only. At Alcáçovas in 1479, Portugal and Castile divided the Atlantic between them, fifteen years before the Treaty of Tordesillas.

Castro Verde lays claim to the Battle of Ourique, fought in 1139; according to tradition, it marks the birth of the kingdom. Next come the Serra do Caldeirão and its strawberry trees, then Faro. You finish there on foot, through the Arco da Vila to the cathedral.

What not to miss

1. 1Mateus PalaceThe Baroque palace that appears on the Mateus Rosé label, on the edge of Vila Real.
2. 2The Galafura viewpointThe terraced Douro seen from above, from the promontory Miguel Torga loved.
3. 3The Remédios stairway686 steps, landings lined with azulejos and a view over the whole of Lamego.
4. 4The Picoto da MelriçaThe geodesic centre of mainland Portugal, above the pine woods of Vila de Rei.
5. 5The ruins of MilreuA Roman villa with fish mosaics, whose temple became a church, at Estoi.
6. 6Faro’s Vila AdentroThe walled old town, its cathedral and its storks’ nests, at the end of the N2.

The Estrada Nacional 2 in pictures

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The concrete arch of the Cabril dam before its blue lake, between the wooded slopes of the Zêzere.

The N2’s table

At the start, Chaves has its pastel, a delicate puff-pastry turnover filled with minced meat, protected by a geographical indication. Lamego has its bôla, a bread stuffed with ham and charcuterie, and its sparkling wines. Around Viseu, people drink the reds of the Dão.

In the Alentejo, bread makes the meal: migas, açorda with garlic and coriander. The black pork here is fattened on the acorns of the montado. In the Caldeirão, people distil medronho, a strawberry-tree brandy. In Faro, people eat clams and oysters from the Ria Formosa.