Page 248 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Portugal

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BRAGANÇA Did You Know?

! F1 n Avenida Cidade de Zamora (273 381 273); The Porta da Traição
Rua Abílio Beça; www.visitbraganca.eu translates as the “Gate
of Betrayal”.
This town gave its name to Portugal’s final royal
EXPERIENCE Douro and Trás-os-Montes Bragança is shrouded in history and legend. shows a hapless porca,
dynasty, descended from an illegitimate son of
João I who was created first duke of Bragança
in 1442. Dominated by an imposing citadel,
The medieval pillory
The Citadel
an ancient stone pig.
This strategic hilltop was the site of a succession of forts
before Fernão Mendes, brother-in-law to King Afonso
Henriques, built a walled citadel here in 1130 and kept
its historic name: Brigantia. Within the walls still stand
Sancho I’s castle, built in 1187, with its watch towers and
dungeons, and the pentagonal 12th-century Domus
Municipalis, beside the church of Santa Maria. The citadel
is closed on Mondays and public holidays.
The Town
By the 15th century, Bragança had expanded west along
the banks of the Fervença river. The Jewish quarter,
which centres around Rua dos Fornos, survives from this
era, when Jews from North Africa and Spain settled here
and founded the silk industry. Head to the lively covered
market, by the old cathedral, where delicacies such as
smoked hams and alheiras (chicken sausages) are sold.

Porta de
Santo Porta
António da Vila
1
1 The citadel dominates
the town of Bragança.
2 The Domus Municipalis is
the only surviving example of
Romanesque civic architecture
in Portugal. It served as a hall
where the homens bons (“good
men”) settled disputes.
3 The castle’s Torre da
Princesa, scene of many tragic
tales, was refuge to Dona
Sancha, unhappy wife of
Fernão Mendes, and prison
to other mistreated royal
2 3 wives kept in the citadel.
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