This town of knights, masters, navigators and sailors has been inhabited since prehistory. Caminha is a proud town on the banks of the Minho river and has a seaport that determines the local economy.
It is a tourist attraction due to the magnificent scenery and rare beauty that surrounds it. There is the river, the sea, the Arga mountains and the coast. It is a neighbour of the Spanish town "La Guardia". It is said that a Spanish noble called Sir Caminho gave this town its name during the Reconquest. There is also the charming story that Jesus and St. Peter were walking here and the Apostle asked where they were. Jesus answered: "caminha, caminha, que temos pressa" (walk on, walk on - we are in a hurry) ("caminha" means walk on).
A fortified border town situated at the mouth of the River Minho, where several battles were fought between Portugal and Spain, Caminha now enjoys much more friendly relations with its neighbour and there is a daily ferry-boat linking the two banks of the river. Standing on a tiny island in the middle of the estuary are the ruins of the fort of Ínsua, built to defend the entrance to the river in the fifteenth century. But this region lives from much more than just its past, and Vilar de Mouros, a picturesque spot in the most beautiful countryside, roughly 6 km to the north of Caminha, is the setting for a highly popular festival of modern music, held every August and the first of its kind ever to be organised in Portugal.
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