Gouveia

Gouveia is a small city in Serra da Estrela in Portugal. Gouveia's location offers views over the Mondego valleys with the horizon dominated by the mountains and highlands of Beira Alta region. With wide horizons that allow people to have one of the widest views in Portugal over almost the entire Beira Alta region, Gouveia features a path to the highest geographic point of continental Portugal, with astonishing views over the valley.

Understand




In 2011, Gouveia (goh-VAY-uh, /go.ˈvɐj.ɐ/) municipality was home to 14,046 people (2011), of whom 3,500 lived in the town.

History
The establishment of Gouveia is often attributed to the year 580 BC, but the oldest material proof of human occupation is funerary pottery dating to the Bronze Age. In the parish of Rio Torto, the oldest evidence of human occupation is a dolmen (a stone funerary structure) dating back to the fourth millennium BC.

The Roman occupation was also a part of the city's history. A consecration inscription to the Lusitanian god Salqiu was found in a chapel on the city centre, as was the grave of a Roman warrior with iron artefacts related to war (axe, knife, and an arrow head). In the Folgosinho, Nespereira, and V.N. Tazem parishes, there are Roman roads that can still be walked.

During the Medieval period, the city developed, with shepherding, agriculture, and wool production as the biggest areas of economic development. The Jewish community played an important role in this development, especially in the handcrafts using wool, but also with trade. A Hebrew inscription was found in the late 1960s in one of the old Jewish quarters that certifies the last synagogue to be built in Portugal before the mandatory conversion and expulsion of the Jewish community of Portugal in the year of 1496, which is also the year recorded in the inscription. The inscription can be seen in the museum Espaço Arte e Memória.

During the modern period, the wool industry grew until the 20th century, since which time it has diminished.

The main architectural structures are in the city centre, and they go back to the 18th century, especially the St. Peter's church, a small cathedral, the library and the museum building, the city hall, an 18th-century Jesuit college, and several churches and chapels. The biggest icon is a 16th-century building called casa da torre, which has a "pelourinho" in front from the same period as the building to commemorate the autonomy attained by Gouveia from King Manuel I.

Get in
The main road through Gouveia is the EN17, which can be reached from the A25 motorway (Autoestrada das Beiras Litoral e Alta).

Parks

 * The Ecological Park of Gouveia is in a rural area just outside the city limits in Quinta da Borrachota. With an area of 6 hectares, the park has flora and fauna distributed along its paths as well as support infrastructures and information for visitors about the environmental region that surrounds the city.
 * CERVAS—Centro de Ecologia, Recuperação e Vigilância de Animais Selvagens (centre for ecology, recovery, and monitoring of wildlife centre)—is a national park of Serra da Estrela, managed by ALDEIA Association. Its goals are to identify and solve problems relating to the conservation and management of the wildlife and its habitats. The main focus of this work is related to the recovery and treatment of the wildlife and the release of individuals into the wild.
 * CERVAS—Centro de Ecologia, Recuperação e Vigilância de Animais Selvagens (centre for ecology, recovery, and monitoring of wildlife centre)—is a national park of Serra da Estrela, managed by ALDEIA Association. Its goals are to identify and solve problems relating to the conservation and management of the wildlife and its habitats. The main focus of this work is related to the recovery and treatment of the wildlife and the release of individuals into the wild.

Events

 * The annual literary and painting award, the Vergílio Ferreira National Literature Prize, is named after two of the greatest 20th-century Portuguese authors and artists as an homage to their home town: writer, philosopher, and teacher Vergílio Ferreira (born in Melo, Gouveia) and painter Abel Manta (also born in Gouveia).
 * The city also has a theatre with regular film showings and theatre and music festivals, such as Gouveia Art'Rock, a progressive rock festival going back more than a decade, and a reference in the world within the genre.