Barco gets its name from a very old royal privilege that made the riverside villages of the Zêzere the right to have, and explore, the river crossing by ferryboat. Upstream, Coutada is a very close settlement where there is a continuity of settlement between both urban nuclei.

It is near Coutada that the Zêzere changes its character; its course which is more or less straight from Belmonte and crosses Cova da Beira, becomes somewhat tortuous with bends and meanders, passing by abrupt slopes on the opposite margin, sometimes spreading out into sand and gravel on the opposite margin. It is also here that wedges, and stone structures, perpendicular to the river, emerge with more frequency and monumentally.

To the south, within sight and dominating the entire valley, stands the Cabeço da Argemela, a mountain range of legends, with traces of mining and metallurgical exploration that date back to prehistoric times, and reached its peak during WWII, with hundreds of people scouring its slopes in search of black gold. After this period of exploitation of wolfram which was extended through the concession of the Recheira mines, known as Companhia Inglesa (English Company).