Well-known as the Cradle of Portugal, Guimaraes is something more than a history redoubt that sinks its roots in the Average Age, when Alfonso Enríquez was proclaimed in 1139 king of the country luso. Still it conserves the Castelo, that yes, that are based on the rock mother of the hill that dominates the small village, and románica church of San Miguel, of century XII, on its feet.
But Guimaraes is today a comfortable city of provinces, of little more than 20,000 inhabitants, who have known to conjugate the medieval vestiges with beautiful avenues of baroque character and some amiable and calm residential districts, like almost everything in Portugal.
History narrates the past glorious of Guimaraes, city that the first king of Portugal, Sunday Afonso Henriques, turned capital of the country in century XII. Nowadays, when walking by their old helmet still the tracks of the splendor can be contemplated that has been maintaining for more than 850 years. For that reason, UNESCO classified to Guimaraes like Patrimony of the Humanity.
When arriving at Guimaraes, it is impossible to escape itself of the “aroma” that surrounds to the medieval streets of the city. Here the first king was born of the country and here the dramatist had also his cradle Gil Vicente. Taking a walk by the “lengths” of Oliveira and Toural, as well as by the seat of Santiago it is possible to be appreciated that here the time is not in a hurry. In the wood balconies of the houses it seems that history has stopped.
The walls and the castle keep the origin from the Portuguese nationality, as well as the church of San Miguel of the Castle, where is the románica battery in which Sunday Afonso Henriques was baptized. Numerous churches, as Nossa Senhora gives Oliveira, Santo Domingo, Sao Torcato or Sao Marinho de Candoso, mix the architectonic styles, from the Romanesque one when mudéjar, the baroque one to the neoclassic one.