Ermida is a typical mountain village where the local population practices a subsistence agriculture, making use of an extensive cultivated area built on terraces. Animal husbandry and forestry activities are also carried out, managed by the local community. This is one of the most isolated villages in the National Park, being at the end of the road that serves this side of the Serra Amarela. Within the village we find the features that are never lacking in such communities such as the drinking troughs for animals and espigueiros (maize stores). The space in front of the church seems to be the principal focal point of village life, probably where people gather and where they wait for some news that stirs the day-to-day life.

We can visit the small Ermida Museum where many of the main characteristics of this mountain community are exhibited. Two striking elements of the cultural heritage of this locality are also displayed: the Ermida Menir Statue and the Valentine's Stone. The first is a magnificent example dating from the 2nd Millennium BC, the oldest anthropomorphic sculpture known in this region. The second is a tombstone from the period of Romanization, found on the outskirts of the Branda de Bilhares and which the village people believe portrays the figures of á pair of sweethearts’.