PORTUGUESE TRADITIONAL SCHIST MASONRY WALLS

The schist constructions represent a very important cultural, architectonic and historical legacy in Portugal and in Europe, that urges to preserve. Included among the traditional Portuguese architectural heritage, there are many traditional buildings in masonry schist, distributed from North to South, varying the types of buildings, the constructive methodologies and even the schist, which may have quite different properties and characteristics, depending on the area where it is extracted. Over the years, this traditional architecture hasimplemented a truly sustainable construction through the use of natural materials existing in the region, as today it is pretended to implement in the contemporary construction. The constructive methodologies of these traditional structures have been developed in direct relation to the various factors that influence them, including economic, environmental and social ones, adapting to different environments and requirements over the time, originating a wide diversity of typologies that today exist in the Portuguese territory.