The megalithic necropolis of Chão Redondo consists of two corridor monuments about 50 meters away from each other, deployed on the slope of the Talha das mountain. From these two, is better known the dolmen of Chão Redondo 2 which, together with the tapir of Cerqueira, is the best known megalithic monument of Sever do Vouga. Its notoriety comes from the pictures adorning its interiors, making it one of the most lavishly decorated dolmens of the Iberian Peninsula. It is a polygonal chamber dolmen 2.3 meters long, made up of seven tombstones, or pillars, of which only five remained. The mound with almost two meters tall has a diameter of 18 meters. This monument belongs to the Neolithic, dating back its construction about 6000 years.
Near the necropolis runs a small stream tributary of the river Alfusqueiro. Next to which the iberian emerald lizard and the iberian frog can be seen. In the air, the common buzzard and the sparrowhawk dictate their laws, and around granite outcrops of these wastelands, the wall brown butterfly and the delicate hoop petticoat daffodil find their habitat. Next to Alfusqueiro a surprise expects for us: some pontic rhododendron living here at the western limit of its distribution.
The headstone features a number of “Vs” that may pose an umbrella entity. The mainstay of the right notes zigzags and circles and the one on the corridor registers a meander. The represented reasons, essentially geometric, can be understood as ritual manifestations which are embedded in a speech where the whole monument is part. This same speech only makes sense when we consider the monument as a whole and thus also understand how it interacted with the other monuments of the necropolis. This was a place of worship, where the audience participated in the space bordered by a low wall, the lobby, and access to funeral gallery and prints only allowed to the elect ones.
The roman road of Ereira witnesses the intense road network that for centuries was used by the roman legions to impose its power on the Lusitania. The roman road section that goes through Ereira was part of the Viseu road from the junction with Olissipo/Bracara road, i.e. Lisbon/Braga, built between centuries II and IV A.D.
