The village of Vila do Conde dates back to 953 the first documentary reference to the so-called committee villa, related to the sale of land today called Monte do Mosteiro to the Guimarães Monastery, and where the first inhabitants are believed to have settled.
There was a count who lived in Azurara, "with the countess, his wife, of whom he had no children." Returning, once, from a long pilgrimage, sick and sensing death, the count vowed to let go of a white dove and , in the place where it landed, found a convent and a village to which it would give its name. The dove flew and landed in Alto de S.João, where the Count ordered the monastery to be built and the settlement around it, the story concludes. For a long time, the Count of this village was D. Mendes Pais Bofinho. In 953, the town appears under the name of Villa de Comite and Rofinho. Other historians claim that Count Belote was presor and grantee of Vila-Condense lands and that the origin of the toponym Villa de Comite comes from this count
This square is a poetic evocation of the Discoveries, to which Vila do Conde is closely linked. An intervention by the sculptor José Rodrigues, the square is completed with several references to the Discoveries, highlighting the patterns that refl...
As in Vila do Conde, the Azureans also took advantage of King D. Manuel I's passage to Santiago de Compostela, in 1502, to tell him about the intention to build a parish church and ask him for royal reimbursement. The new church was built next to ...
Gothic and Manueline church, built between 1496-1518, was sponsored by D. Manuel I, and came to replace a previous one, of which there are no traces. Like the construction of the Church of Caminha, this work was directed by successive teachers fro...
This is the oldest chapel in Vila do Conde, and is dedicated to the patron saint of sailors, Nossa Senhora da Guia. It was built at the end of the century. X, as it appears in the Inventory of goods of the Monastery of Guimarães, made in 1059. It ...
In the transept, on the side of the Gospel, there is the tombstone of D. Brites Pereira, daughter of D. Nuno Álvares Pereira, having the weapons of her husband, D. Afonso, 1st Duke of Bragança Beatriz Pereira de Alvim Countess of Barcelos, Ourém a...
It is in the 16th century that D. Duarte 5th 5th of Guimarães, Constable of Portugal and lord of Vila do Conde, orders Filipe Terzi to design and build this Fort for the defense of the coast and bar. With a polygonal plan, it consists of five bast...
Romanic church belonging to the Monastery of Rio Mau (Canons ruling St. Augustine), initially built in 1103, the current church being the result of a reconstruction started in 1151, having this work sponsored by the priest Pedro Dias. This reconst...
The capitals of the chancel reveal a degree of definition and precision of iconography, unique, which lead us to believe that it was the work of an artisan who worked only in this church, and only in his chancel. All the symbolism of the iconograp...
Romanic church belonging to the Monastery of Rio Mau (Canons ruling St. Augustine), initially built in 1103, the current church being the result of a reconstruction started in 1151, having this work sponsored by the priest Pedro Dias. This reconst...
This chapel was built by Gaspar Manuel Carneiro, chief pilot of the career navy for India, China and Japan and Knight of the Order of Christ, as well as by his wife, Bárbara Ferreira d'Almeida, to promote the cult of Nossa Senhora do Socorro, patr...
