Arouca Geopark

The Arouca Geopark covers 328 square kilometres of mountain terrain and was designated a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2009. Its defining feature is a set of Ordovician trilobite fossils exposed in slate outcrops at Canelas, a short drive from the town centre. The fossils are enormous — the largest reach nearly a metre in length — and they are visible in their natural setting, embedded in slabs of dark schist on a hillside.

The geopark is not just about trilobites. The territory encompasses the Serra da Freita plateau, deep river gorges, schist villages, and a landscape shaped by ancient seabed sediments now pushed thousands of metres above sea level. Guided tours to the fossil sites run from the Centro de Interpretação do Geoparque de Arouca in town; the centre itself has a good introductory exhibition and is worth a visit before heading out to the outcrops. Allow half a day for the museum and a fossil site visit combined.

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A story
The trilobites found in the schist outcrops of the Arouca Geopark date from the Ordovician period — around 465 million years ago — when the region lay at the bottom of a shallow sea near the South Pole. The largest specimens exceed 90 centimetres, making them among the biggest trilobite fossils ever discovered anywhere on earth. They were only identified as scientifically significant in the 1990s.

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