Pousada

Guimaraes Pousada has been successfully converted from a private manor house, and offers all the comfort of modern amenities, while maintaining charming and private characteristics.

From the Pousada's windows you can enjoy looking over the church steeples, ancient rooftops, and surrounding medieval streets leading to the majestic monuments, so characteristic of the birth city of Portugal.

History of Guimaraes (Guimarães

Although essentially a medieval town, Guimaraes has its origins in the 10th century. It was at this time that the Countess Mumadona Dias, widow of Hemengildo Mendes, ordered the construction of a monastery that became the focal point for a settlement. She orderd a castle to be built, for defensive reasons, on a hill a short distance away thus creating a second development nucleus. A street called Santa Maria road linked the two settlements. Later the monastery acquired great importance due to the privileges and donations bestowed on it by kings and nobility. It became a famous pilgrimage point attracting the prayers and promises of the faithful drawn from all corners of the county.

While the town continued to grow inside the walls which were erected to defend it, the orders of poor friars arrived in Guimaraes and made their contribution to shaping the town. The twin nuclei subsequently merged into one, so that by the turn of the 15th century the layout of the city within its walls had been established. Although there would still be the construction of some churches, monasteries and palaces and the creation of the Misericordia Square (now Joao Franco Square), its borders would not be significantly altered.

It was at the end of the 19th century (1853), with the advent of new ideas on public health and town planning, that Guimaraes was raised to the status of city in by order of queen D. Maria II. Major changes were to happen after that.

The demolition of the city walls was encouraged and work authorized. New squares such as Largo de Carmo (today Martins Sarmento square) and Largo Condessa de Juncal were opened, as well as new streets and avenues. Later the Colina da Fundacao was landscaped and the Alameda was created. However, almost everything was done in harmony with the conservation of its historic town heartd.