Centro Geodésico de Portugal
Posted by: 
btrodrigues
N 39° 41.670 W 008° 07.834
29S E 574545 N 4394211
The municipality of Vila de Rei is covered by large pine areas and it's located precisely in the middle of Portugal, geographically speaking.
Waymark Code: WM8RAR
Location: Castelo Branco, Portugal
Date Posted: 05/06/2010
Views: 27
The municipality of Vila de Rei is covered by large pine areas and it's located precisely in the middle of Portugal, geographically speaking. This fact is marked by the peak of Melriça, one of the many interesting monuments: The tower, built on high ground (600 meters) is actually on the exact Geodesic Centre of Portugal. From up there you can enjoy a fantastic panoramic view over a very wide horizon. If the weather is clear and sunny you can see as far as Serra da Estrela Hill’s 100km away.
On the same area you can also visit the small Museum of Geodésia.
The Picoto of Milriça is closely linked to the history of modern cartography in Portugal. This began in 1790 in the reign of King Mary I, when the queen asked D. Ciera Francisco, professor of the Royal Navy, to begin work on the triangulation of the general territory for the preparation of maps of the kingdom.
As early as 1802, was built the vertex geodesic Milriça that belonged to the group of the first 32 national vertices. This famous "Picoto" is a pyramid of brick with 3 meters of base and 9 feet high, almost two centuries old.
The works of triangulation, however, were interrupted in 1803 by virtue of the political situation of the time and later completed after 1834. Today there are around the country about 8 000 vertices for surveying, many of them built in almost inaccessible places. It was thanks to the dedication of geographers and cartographers of the past century that it was created the National Geodetic Network which is one of the bases for the geographical knowledge of the territory.
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