Miguel Torga was born in Trás-os-Montes, in the Alto Duero, a privileged microclimate for the cultivation of vineyards. The writer had one of the great consciences (and love) for nature, and he would travel to Europe, and visit Spain several times.

He was arrested at his medical office and imprisoned in Lisbon. In 1939 he published The Fourth Day, from the cycle The Creation of the World, his impressions of the trip to Spain at the end of the Civil War.