P�voa de Varzim

Povoa de Varzim (P�voa de Varzim) is the name of a city in northern Portugal, 25 km (~20 miles) north of the city of Oporto. It is sometimes erroneusly called P�voa do Varzim.

Table of contents

1 Origins of Povoa de Varzim
2 P�voa de Varzim in the Middle Ages
3 Modern Times
4 E�a de Queiroz

Origins of Povoa de Varzim

To explain the History of Povoa de Varzim represents a trip to its historical or, more accuratly, prehistoric origins. It was the land of Varazim, Family Euracini who possessed it in the roman times gave the name to it. Some archaeological, very expressive findings in Martim Vaz and less in the Junqueira and Vila Velha, inform them of the presence of man in the antiquity. An old village in a City Hill dates back to 4000 b.c. it is named Cividade de Terroso, from where you can see the entire city and its sea. However, the identification document of this territory - Villa Euracini - has the date of 953 and belongs to the cartul�rio of the Student body of Guimaraes, assigned for the Livro de Mumadona (Book of Mumadona).

P�voa de Varzim in the Middle Ages

In 1308, after enrolling the 54 couples of Varazim, king Denis of Portugal ordered to pass a letter of Charter donating reguengo de Varazim de Sus�o, with the incubency to establish a P�voa (Small harbor). P�voa de Varzim pulls out for the challenge of times and come back toward its maritime cove that guarantees the subsistence of it and had been the first engine of its development and prosperity. King Manuel I of Portugal ordered to give new charter to the Village (1514), remodelling the old one in the fiscal part and providing it with alternative mechanisms to the jurisdiction of the monastery. The small town of P�voa, that had no more than five hundred inhabitants, feeled the beneficial air from the coast of the country, involved in the traffic of the discoveries and conquests, and assumes to be a city with its House of the Concelho (City Hall), Public square and Pillory.

Modern Times

P�voa de Varzim more does not cease to grow and many look it, also, for the benefit of the "banns of the sea": badly if it glimpses, still, the success of this partner-economic fact that would go to make P�voa de Varzim, already in 2nd half of the 19th century, the summer holiday destination for the rich people of Porto and from other places of Minho Province. This is the time of the "Caf�-Concerto" (coffee-concert) and the private gambling that the railroad linking Porto-P�voa (1875) and the American line Vila do Conde - P�voa (1874) goes to liven up considerably. It fishes it, the sea banns and the game constitutes, now, the bases of the progress of P�voa de Varzim, the axle of its economic evolution. The fishery activity is anchored, today, in safe port of shelter; the banns beach equips with modern and attractive structures; the game, regulated and official, meets in its monumental casino, interior, of a extasiante beauty and livened up of constant and multiforms artistic creation. The city of the P�voa de Varzim was fixed as capital point of the tourist region of Costa Verde (Green Coast).

E�a de Queiroz

An importante figure of the city is E�a de Queiroz, a worldwide famous 19th century novelist. His work was transleted to several languages and he is seen as one of the most relevant portuguese writers of all times, a side of Luis de Cam�es and Fernando Pessoa.