Viana do Castelo

Viana stands at the mouth of the Lima, where its harbor connects northern Portugal to the Atlantic. Afonso III granted the settlement a charter in 1258, and by the fifteenth century its merchants traded along routes linking northern Europe with the Mediterranean. Textiles from the town also supplied the Portuguese islands of Madeira and the Azores. In the sixteenth century trade in Brazilian sugar brought northern European merchants to Viana, while fishermen sailed to the waters off Newfoundland and Greenland for cod. Prosperity encouraged the foundation of religious houses, including the Dominican convent of São Domingos, inaugurated in 1576. The town's coastal defenses were strengthened as commerce made its harbor an attractive target.