Estevais, a village in the district of Mogadouro, has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Excavations carried out at the beginning of the 20 th century revealed objects from the Neolithic period (around 2000 B.C.), which can currently be found in the Abade de Baçal museum in Bragança. It was during the Roman occupation (started around 200 B.C.) that Estevais must have begun its development as a point on the route between Moncorvo and Mogadouro, evidence of which can still be seen in the traces of a Roman via at Nogueiras, on the way to Carviçais. This road is wide enough to allow the passage of an oxen cart. The village was originally located half a kilometre away in the small valley of Casas de Baixo . However, owing to the fact that this was an insalubrious place, and, perhaps also to the fact that it was not near to the through route, its inhabitants moved to the site where it is currently located.

The oldest buildings still standing, which are built of loose stone, must date from the 17 th century. The date of 1700 can be seen above the church door. An interesting religious image, which is believed to date from the 13 th century, can be found in the chapel at the end of the main street.

The old graveyard is probably the only one of its kind still existing in Portugal . The influence of our Arabic ancestors can be found in virtually all of the graves, the head of the body being marked not with a cross but with a stone buried vertically. In some cases there are two stones, since shortage of space sometimes led to two people being buried in the same plot.

The village's most prosperous period was probably during the final two decades of the 19th century, when it had more than 300 inhabitants. After the First World War, emigration, the lack of economic opportunities and the abandonment of farming led to its steady decline.

Finally, the construction of a narrow-gauge railway line (the Sabor line) in the 1930s, and a road between Moncorvo and Mogadouro in the late 1940s, both 6 kilometres away, meant that the village was no longer on a through road, thus increasing the isolation of its inhabitants.

At the end of 2005, Estevais had 115 inhabitants, 85 of whom were over 70 years old.

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