Visit the Serra do Buçaco - Luso

 The Serra do Buçaco, located in the Parish of Luso, once known as Serra de Alcoba, is 549 meters high in the area of ​​the geodesic landmark, located on its plateau, begins in the area of ​​the Eagle's Nest and ends at the famous Mondego Bookstore. It covers the municipalities of Mealhada, Mortágua, Penacova and in its extension contains the Buçaco National Forest (Mealhada), the set of windmills of Portela da Oliveira, the sanctuary of Senhora do Monte Alto and part of the Mondego Bookstore, the three in Penacova.

It is also in this mountain that the waters of Caldas de Penacova are captured. The forest that still exists today in the Serra do Buçaco was commanded to plant by the Order of the Discalced Carmelites in the first quarter of the seventeenth century; the Carmelites also built there the Convent of Santa Cruz do Buçaco, designed to house this monastic order, which existed between 1628 and 1834, the date of the extinction of religious orders in Portugal. Presently, in its place there is the Hotel Palace Buçaco.

The Buçaco National Forest, considered a protected area, has plant species from all over the world, some of them gigantic, besides the world-famous Cupressus lusitanica. It was in this mountain that the Buçaco battle was fought in 1810 between the Anglo-Portuguese forces commanded by the Duke of Wellington on the one hand and the French commanded by André Massena on the other, a fact that is remembered in Buçaco Military Museum.