“Here Portugal was born.” In other words, Portugal was born here. It is the welcome to the old town of Guimarães through enormous white letters placed on a dark stretch of wall encapsulated between two houses. Why is the origin of Portuguese found here? To begin with the birth in 1109 of the first Portuguese monarch. It is true that some thoughtful historian does not agree with that fact, but the belief is almost unanimous that Afonso Henriques was born in the bedrooms of the medieval castle that crowns Guimarães.
This character, as a child, was orphaned by his father, so the Portucalense county that he was to inherit was ruled by his mother Teresa de León. She was there and she controlled a vast territory in the north of the Peninsula, while she kept at bay the Muslims who were stalking her from the south. She ruled with an iron fist and did so in the company of a powerful Galician count who, after abandoning his wife, lived in adultery with the Leonese queen. The latter must have gotten the beardless Afonso mad, who had confronted his mother since he was a teenager. That could not end well, in fact, the end came in 1128.
In June of that year, the young man gathered his troops to confront those of his mother and her lover in the Campo de San Mamede, near Guimarães. He was victorious and Afonso recovered the county, transformed it into an independent kingdom, made Guimarães the capital and called himself Alfonso I of Portugal. From there, he took a liking to battles and until his death in 1185 he fought incessantly to consolidate independence and increase his possessions to the south, even reaching Lisbon.
Knowing these data, we understand the legend that greets visitors to Guimarães. And it is also understood that it is a common destination for Portuguese people, especially of school age. Although not only national visitors come to discover its past. Guimarães has value for everyone. In the literal sense because it is considered a world heritage site. So thanks to its proximity to Porto or Braga, it is a recurring excursion from those two tourist poles.
It is obvious that the imposing fortress that housed Alfonso I, whether he was born there or not, is a must-see to be dwarfed by its strong walls and crenellated towers. On the other hand, its interior is bare and somewhat soulless. The opposite happens to the palace of the Dukes of Bragança located a stone's throw from the castle. It is a palace of Burgundian architecture built around the 15th century. But little remains from then. What is current is the result of the restoration carried out to convert it into the opulent residence of Salazar, the dictator who ruled the country as he pleased during the central decades of the last 20th century.
When you walk through its rooms, everything is ostentation. Period furniture or furniture inspired by the past, tapestries, carpets, magnificent lamps, porcelain from overseas, stopped clocks, paintings... a museum. Or rather a fabulous prop that has been filmed by various film and television productions, both from Portuguese and international capital, including Spanish films such as Juana la Loca by Vicente Aranda.
Castle and palace, with the Romanesque hermitage of San Miguel between them, represent the upper and aristocratic part of historic Guimarães. But you still have to descend to its urban area. All you have to do is take the cobbled Rúa de Santa María to enter a street that is less monumental but undoubtedly more human and welcoming. Thus, in a moment you reach Largo de Oliveira and Plaza de Santiago, the heart of the city.
There is the medieval temple of Our Lady of Oliveira, whose dedication has to do with the olive tree planted next to it. An olive tree that evokes another legendary tree capable of withering or flowering depending on the course of the conquests of the infidels of the south. Also next to the church there is a Gothic temple that houses a cross, which is also related to victories against the Muslims. In this case commemorating the battle of the Salado River in the 14th century.
Church, olive tree and temple are surrounded by humble architecture based on whitewashed facades with color only reserved for the wood of balconies and windows. While the ground floor are arcades that house the most typical bars and terraces of Guimarães. A panorama repeated in the adjacent Plaza de Santiago, which is accessed by passing under Manueline style arches that elevated the rooms of the old municipal council. Today those 16th century rooms no longer house local power, since the Town Hall moved to another nearby building, which in turn was part of the Santa Clara convent.
Walking through Guimarães is like that. It jumps from a building with history to another that has more, but that has changed its use, shape and decoration over time. It occurs, for example, in the Santo Domingo convent, around whose cloister the Martins Sarmiento Archaeological Museum arises. Or not far away awaits the old municipal market, now the Plataforma das Artes e da Criatividade that shows the avant-garde along with works from Africa, America or Asia. And a little further on is the Vila Flor palace, with its baroque façade and its rococo gardens, capable of being reborn into a cultural center with an agenda full of events, where it is worth remembering the country's past, but above all it aims to advance what is to arrive.
