The village of Mata is just north of Vila Nova do Ceira, and lies each side of the main road to Poiares. It is built on slightly higher ground, so that the village could take maximum advantage of the fertile soils alongside the river Ceira.
The first cemetery in the freguesia of Vila Nova do Ceira was created in Mata, although the location has now moved from its original site. There is a chapel here, where families come together to pass the last night with the deceased before they are buried. In the past the deceased were transported to the chapel by a “carreta” (a kind of hand-cart). The inhabitants of Mata went to the festa of Várzea Pequena in honour to Rainha Santa Isabel.

The people of the village mostly lived from agriculture, and cultivated maize and potatoes. The fields were irrigated with water from the river Ceira, and the mill at Mata on the river Ceira still works. The old lagar at Mata where the olives used to go for pressing was destroyed to build the new one, that is owned by the Cooperativa of Vila Nova do Ceira. The big house on the street and the land around it was owned by a condessa (countess).
Like most villages in the freguesia of Vila Nova do Ceira, in Mata they played the traditional game of ‘chi’ when peeling the maize: whoever found a dark cob had to kiss everyone else in the group. Another tradition was that at the feast of São João at midsummer, they collected bundles of rosemary, made a big pile of it in the square and lit a fire. People then jumped over the bonfire, in the old pagan fashion.