According to idealista, the municipality of Penamacor wants to recover three abandoned houses in the Serra da Malcata Nature Reserve, in the first phase, to increase the tourist offer in the municipality.

According to the Mayor, António Beites, the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) was asked to transfer these properties to the municipality, through the delegation of powers, and to include them in the State's list of abandoned heritage.

The mayor added that the houses in question, “abandoned for several years”, have already been identified with the aim of allocating them to tourism, within the scope of the Serra da Malcata Co-Management Action Plan, which also involves Sabugal, in the district of Guarda.

According to António Beites, ICNF was presented with proposals on what the municipality, in the Castelo Branco district, has planned for each of these buildings, which were also used for tourist purposes in the past but are now in disrepair, the mayor said in statements to the Lusa news agency.

António Beites highlighted that in the Serra da Malcata Nature Reserve, there are more houses in which the municipality wants to intervene after they come under the control of the local authority.

“It is clearly important for the municipality’s tourist attraction because they are all in the heart of the Serra da Malcata. They are all within the nature reserve, a classified heritage site, with 16 thousand hectares”, he stressed.