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Guimarães |
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Birthplace of Afonso Henriques and first capital of medieval
Portucale, GUIMARÃES remains a lively and atmospheric university town.
The town's chief attraction is the Castelo (Tues-Sun 10am-12.30pm &
2-5.30pm; free), whose square keep and seven towers are an enduring
symbol of the emergent Portuguese nation. Built by Henry of Burgundy, it
became the stronghold of his son, Afonso Henriques. From here the
Reconquest began along with the creation of a kingdom which, within a
century of Afonso's death, was to stretch to its present borders. Afonso
is said to have been born in the keep, and was probably baptized in the
font of the Romanesque chapel of São Miguel on the grassy slope below.
The third building here, the Paço dos Duques , was once the palace of
the dukes of Bragança, but under the Salazar dictatorship was "restored"
as an official residence. Looking like a mock-Gothic Victorian folly, it
now houses dull collections of portraits, furniture and porcelain.
The other two museums in Guimarães are, in contrast, among the best
outside Lisbon. The Museu Alberto Sampaio , ten minutes' walk south of
the castle (Tues-Sun 10am-12.30pm & 2-5.30pm, July & Aug till 7pm;
¬1.50, free Sun am), is mostly the treasury of the adjoining Colegiada
church and the monastery that used to be here. The highlight is a silver-gilt
Triptych of the Nativity , said to have been found in the king of
Castile's tent after the Portuguese victory at Aljubarrota. Like Batalha,
the Colegiada itself was built in honour of a vow made by João I before
that decisive battle. In front of it stands a Gothic canopy-shrine that
marks the spot where Wamba, unwillingly elected king of the Visigoths,
drove a pole into the ground swearing that he would not reign until it
blossomed. Naturally it sprouted immediately. João, feeling this a
useful precedent of divine favour, set out to meet the Castilians from
this very point.
The finest church in town is São Francisco , a short distance east of
the tourist office, with its huge eighteenth-century azulejos , or
decorative tiles, of St Francis preaching to the fishes and its elegant
Renaissance cloister and fountain.
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