Guimarães is a medieval city in the North of Portugal. The city is an important touristic attraction.
On 23 Octomber me and Malina planed to go with other colleagues in Braga, but because we were late we missed the train. We chose to go to Guimarães and leave the trip for Braga on another day because we had to wait a lot for the next train, there was no chance to meet with our friends in Braga and we read about the the city in a Portugal Travel Guide.
I liked the medieval style of the city which combines modern buildings with monuments from the 10th century.
The castles were impressive. We also visited some churches.
Guimarães Castle
http://www.guide-to-castles-of-europe.com/guimaraes-castle.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guimar%C3%A3es_Castle
The Palace of the Dukes of Braganza (Paço dos Duques de Bragança)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_the_Dukes_of_Braganza
http://www.aportugalattraction.com/portugal-attractions/so-gualter-church.htm
We left the city with the wish to come back and visit other places.
this church is awesome . Love them :-)
ReplyDeletedo you know that Guimarães is the birth of Portugal? Our first King was born there. At that time Portugal was no more than a county and guimarães was the most important city of that county. On the south we had the "mouros" and our first king wanted to conquered the land to the "mouros". And he was successful.
ReplyDeleteAt that time, even before the existence of our first king, the Portucalense county (this was the name) belonged to spain. Well, it was not the spain we kow today because half of the iberian peninsula was occupied by the mouros. the king of castela and leon offered this county to a brave soldier in order to thank him for his help in those wars. He had a son - Afonso Henriques - who wanted to be independent and so he decided to fight against the king of castela and leon. After several wars he won the right to be called king. Nevertheless, his mother didn't want to accept this situation - she preferred to belong to castela and leon. The church also didn't want to recognise Afonso Henriques as a king and Portugal as a country. But at the end he had to. and so we say today that a country / king that was born / created fighting the mother and the church could not succeed :-).
Well this is only a story about the creation of Portugal. I hope you heard more stories during you visit to Guimarães.