"Legend has it that in the Valença do Minho fortress, pointing towards the Tui cathedral, there was a cannon that had the following motto engraved on it: "Ai espanha se te moves"
To the legend of the Valença cannons we should add that of the heroine of Monçao, Deu-la-Deu Martins. With the fortress of said town surrounded by the troops of Enrique de Trastámara and after a long siege, he decided to gather the last bags of flour that remained to resist the famine that the besieged were already experiencing and to bake bread that, from the battlements of the wall, he threw to the besiegers as a sign of generosity in the face of their hostile action. The Spanish, seeing that they had so much food, decided to lift the siege. But there is one fact, which is not legend and which expresses the historical mistrust between both countries beyond the Fernandina wars of the 14th century or the restoration in the 17th: the international bridge of Tui, which this year turns 130 since its inauguration. In the same construction project, several receptacles were included to install dynamite in case an armed conflict between both countries recommended its explosion. They are still visible to anyone walking along their side walkway.
Aside from these issues, the truth is that relations between neighbors on both sides of the border have been more cordial than hostile for centuries. Commercial relations, and smuggling when borders were more rigid, unite more than dynastic enmities.
The route of the walls and fortresses in northern Portugal extends from the border in A Mezquita, where the Penedo dos Tres Reinos is, to the mouth of the Miño, in the fort of A Ínsua, an island that was several times disputed between both countries and today belongs to Portugal. Chaves, Melgaço and Valença do Minho, and especially this last square, retain the best defensive bastions. But visitors, more interested in shopping, pay little attention."
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