It is a small village with little over that 200 inhabitants belonging to Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo, one of the most ancient towns in Portugal, where the train reached between 1887 and 1989.
The elegant bridge Almirante Sarmento Rodrigues, over the Douro River, was inaugurated in 1955 and designed by Edgar Cardoso.

At night, over the village, the sky is often starlit being possible to easily spot the Ursa Major and Ursa Minor constellation and, according to a local legend, all couples that walk on the bridge under the stars will be struck by Cupid.
Barca D’Alva is famous for the huge number of almond, orange and olive trees and was during years the inspiring refuge of Guerra Junqueiro, a Portuguese poet and novelist.

Spanish territory can be seen from the village and the two countries are connected by bridges over the tributary Águeda River that comes from the south of Portugal; one of the bridges is a railway bridge, closed in 1989, and the other is a road bridge, inaugurated in 2000.

As far as table flavours are concerned, there is honey, cheese, olive oils, mixed together with almond sweets and Port Wine. However, Barca D’Alva is also a game parish, where wild hoar, partridge and hare courses are also quite famous.

The course of the Douro River in Portuguese territory begins not far from Barca D’Alva and offers to tourists the possibility to quietly sail up and downstream in comfortable and different ships as the ones DouroAzul has, sailing through the 5 dams until you reach the mouth of the river, in Oporto.