Barcelos

Barcelos stands beside the Cávado on a road used by pilgrims travelling north to Santiago de Compostela. Its medieval charter and river crossing helped make it a center for the surrounding countryside. Count Pedro Afonso commissioned the Gothic bridge, built between 1325 and 1328, linking the town to Barcelinhos on the opposite bank. In the fifteenth century Afonso, first duke of Braganza, built a palace here, and walls were erected around the expanding town. A Jewish community had its own quarter and synagogue; following Manuel I's decree of 1497, its members were compelled to convert. The parish church, enlarged under the counts, became a collegiate church in 1464.