Guimarães

Guimarães occupies a celebrated place in the beginnings of Portugal. In the tenth century Countess Mumadona Dias founded a monastery in the lower settlement and built a castle on the hill above it. The monastery acquired royal and noble gifts and became a place of pilgrimage. Nearby, the battle of São Mamede in 1128 marked an important step in Afonso Henriques's rise to power and the formation of the Portuguese kingdom. The medieval town grew around its religious and fortified centers. Mendicant orders established themselves here, and walls protected the expanding settlement. Guimarães also had a Jewish community with its own communal institutions; after Manuel I's decree of 1496, Jews were required to convert or leave Portugal.