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Guimaraes (Portugal)

Guimaraes (Portugal)

Guimaraes is a medieval city that has its roots in the remote X century At this time the Countess Mumadona Dias, widow of Hermenegildo Mendes, ordered the construction of a monastery which became a center of attraction and led to the establishment of a population.
At the same time, and to defend the population, Mumadona built a castle nearby, on the hill, thereby creating a second point of settlement. To joining the two nuclei created Santa Maria Street.
later became the monastery school and acquired a great importance due to the privileges and gifts to kings and nobles was granted. It became an important pilgrimage to the shrine of attending believers everywhere. The people at that time surrounded by a defensive wall, expanded and organized.
Meanwhile, the mendicant orders Guimaraes installed in helping shape the physiognomy of the city, "Over time the two poles merge into one after the fifteenth century and the walled city will have few changes. Still be built some churches, convents and palaces along the creation of the Place de la Misericordiade late seventeenth century, but its overall structure will not be significantly altered.
will from the nineteenth century, with new urban ideas of hygiene and symmetry, the people, raised to town in 1853 by Queen Mary II, will undergo its biggest change. It utorizará and promote the collapse of the walls. spaces will be built Carmo (Martins Sarmento today) and Condessa de Juncal, will create great streets and avenues. However, almost everything is done in a controlled manner, thus allowing the preservation of the magnificent Historical Center. Guimaraes
adds to its historical importance, an incentive more with the appointment of European Capital of Culture 2012.

Statue of Afonso Henriques, Castle and Chapel of San Miguel

»Buildings and places of interest :
" Castelo São Mamede, Guimarães Castle is located just outside the old town, in the Monte cans, known as the "sacred hill." It is classified as a National Monument since 1910.
was built in the tenth century by the Countess Mumadona Days to defend the monastery he founded the attacks of the Moors and Normans. It was fought the Battle of São Mamede (June 24, 1128), related to the origins of Portugal as a nation. It was expanded in the next century by Count Henry of Burgundy, which he established in his court, and later during the reign of Joao Dinis and I. From the fifteenth century have left defensive role and had different uses as a prison policy or barn. After years of neglect it was restored and opened to the public for his visit in 1940.
The castle consists of seven square towers with battlements built on the rock, with particular emphasis on the Torre del Homenaje, 28 meters high, which can be raised. Can be covered perimeter through an upper walkway around the courtyard.
"Chapel of San Miguel : Construction start of the twelfth century, possibly by Earl D. Henrique, in Romanesque style, small in size and architectural simplicity. It has great historical symbolism by binding to the period of the foundation of nationality and tradition that D. Afonso Henriques was baptized in it. Inside the floor is covered with graves attributed to noble warriors attached to the founding of Portuguese nationality. It is classified as a National Monument.
Manor

Dukes of Braganza and Castillo de San Mamede

"Manor of the Dukes of Bragança : House stately home of the fifteenth century, ordered built by the Earl D. Henrique, Conde de Bragança future. The bastard son of King Joao I, and you will be home with his second wife, Constance de Noronha. Very poor since the sixteenth century, the rebuilding began in 1937 and lasted until 1959, when it opens to the public as a museum, with a spoliation dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Existing collections, highlights all the four copies of the tapestries of Pastrana, the design is attributed to the painter Nuno Gonçalves (XV century), for the valuable contribution that represents the history of the Portuguese discoveries, others recount some of the steps of the conquests in North Africa. It also has collections of weapons dating from the fifteenth to the nineteenth and collections of furniture from the period after discovery. The building is considered a National Monument.
"Convento de Santo Antonio Capuchin : Built in 1842 as a hospital cappuccino is currently engaged in museum displaying art and cultural objects. The imposing building stands out for its courts and cloisters, the church and its magnificent eighteenth-century sanctuary. Directly opposite Largo is the Martins Sarmento (former Carmo) which features a Renaissance chafariz three batteries built in 1853 by Gonçalo Lopes and teacher initially placed in Toural to spend on in 1873 to its present location in front of the house where he died great archaeologist named to the plaza.
"Calle de Santa María : It was one of the first roads opened in Guimaraes, as it was intended to be a jack shaft between the convent founded by Mumadona, located on the bottom, and the castle located on top . Because this name appears in documents of the twelfth century, though its top has the name of infestations. Along this street are several witnesses architecture of its past: the Convent of Santa Clara, Casa del Arco, the House of Peixoto and gothic House Valadares.

Convento de Santa Clara (City of Guimaraes)

"Convento de Santa Clara : Current city of Guimaraes, was founded in the fifteenth century by the canon of College Baltasar de Andrade Oliveira. It has a Baroque facade in the center of which stands the statue of Santa Clara. The two-storey cloister is the classical type. Its rich chapel was used since the nineteenth century as a section of Alberto Sampaio Museum.
'Plaza Santiago : According to tradition, James brought a statue of the Virgin Mary at Guimaraes and placed in a pagan temple and a square was renamed Santiago. The square still retains its medieval features. It was on its outskirts where they installed the Franks who came to Portugal as troops of Count D. Henrique. A small XVII century chapel dedicated to St. James was demolished in the late nineteenth century.

Our Lady of Oliveira and Salado monument

"Largo de Oliveira : Here is a magnificent architectural group formed by the Church of Our Lady of Oliveira, the monument and the ancient manors Salado in the municipality.
The Church of Our Lady of Oliveira was ordered rebuilt by D. Joao I, in the late fourteenth century, following a promise that the king made to Our Lady of Oliveira's victory Aljubarrota. Its architect was the master Joao Garcia de Toledo. The temple has a tower attached dated 1513 in which the lowest is the mortuary chapel of the parents of the prior Dieogo Pinheiro, rebuilt the tower. The main chapel was enlarged in the late seventeenth century under the patronage of D. Pedro II, whose arms are in the vault. The main altarpiece is from the second half of the XVIII and the throne belongs to the seventeenth century has support neoclassical. There are two panels on the throne attributed to the painter Pedro Alexandrino and in the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament altar there is a silver and a silver front also, the work of goldsmiths of Guimaraes.
The monument Salado is a 'porch' Gothic erected in the reign of Alfonso IV to commemorate the Battle of Salado (1340). The cruise made in 1342 was offered by Pero Esteves, Guimaraes businessman based in Lisbon.
The construction of country houses in the municipality was initiated at time D. Joao I, in the late fourteenth century. At the beginning of the seventeenth century it was remodeled by architect Joao Lopes de Amorim.
" Alberto Sampaio Museum (Calle Alfredo Guimaraes): Created in 1928 to house the collections of the late College of Our Lady of Oliveira and other churches and convents in the region. It is situated in the place where the Countess Mumadona (tenth century) set up a monastery, which was born around the town of Guimaraes. The spaces occupied belonged to the College and have historical value: the medieval cloister and the rooms that surround it, the former home of priorate and chapter house. Has important collections of sculpture (medieval and Renaissance), gold (noted for its Romanesque chalice Sancho I), processional crosses, a silver altar from the late Gothic XIV century or armor Joao I in the Battle of Aljubarrota.
" Mercy Church: Built in the late sixteenth century Renaissance style by local architects and Joao Lopes Gonçalo Lopes de Amorim, has a monumental altarpiece of the late eighteenth century large sculptural force. Nearby stands the house Lobo Machado, a beautiful Rococo facade, and today houses the Commercial and Industrial Association of Guimaraes.

Toural Square

"Toural Square : Considered today as the heart of the city was in the seventeenth century a place outside the walls near the main gate of the town, where the show was performed in cattle and other products. The public garden was opened in 1878 and for a time housed the statue of D. Afonso Henriques replaced today by a colorful artistic source. Opposite is the church of San Pedro , commissioned in 1737, and architectural simplicity.
"Paio Galvao on the street is the Martins Sarmento Archaeological Museum, founded in 1885 and belonging to society of the same name, and Santo Domingo church, temple, a Gothic structure, built in the late fourteenth century, with a Baroque portal (1770) and the main chapel enlarged around 1774. He was part of the convent of Santo Domingo, ancient medieval building that was destroyed in the late nineteenth century.
"On the street Don Joao I, old exit to Porto, is the monument to Joao I . sixteenth century work, which Cruise is a magnificent four-poster renaissance. There is also the Third Order of St. Dominic, nineteenth century building.
"Church of San Francisco : Gothic Temple root, very altered over time, it was mainly during the eighteenth century had a profound remodeling the porch and just keeping the head. Has in its main chapel the most notable altarpiece Joanin of Guimaraes, and other rococo altarpiece that match tiles beginning of the eighteenth century, depicting scenes from the life of San Antonio. The two-storey cloister is Gonçalo Lopes (late XVI).

Church of San Gualter and Penha Mountain in the background

"Church of San Gualter : Designed by architect André Soares launched in the eighteenth century and finished by adding two towers in the mid-nineteenth century by an architect from Oporto. They are also at this time the staircase and balustrade. The altarpiece of the main chapel is of classical inspiration of the late eighteenth century, with paintings that mimic marble. Is dedicated to the patron of the city.
'Palace and Cultural Center Vila Flor (official Web ): Built in the mid eighteenth century by order of the Carvalho family, is decorated with granite statues of the early kings of Portugal. The facade looks onto a garden decorated with a Baroque fountain. Here was the Queen Dona Maria II in 1852 on the occasion of his visit to the city and in 1884 was held and Industrial Exhibition. The palace was restored in 2005, which also Cultural Center was built with the same name.
"" Bibliography: "Brochure Guimaraes Tourist Office (Main source text) (March 2011)» Portugal (Key Guides) (Editorial Espasa)
»Links: " Guimaraes Tourism " Guimaraes Township