Aveiro

In the place where the land meets the sea and becomes Ria, there is a universe of stories, flavours, and traditions, brought to this day by the memories of its people.

From the journey through the eleven municipalities of the Region of Aveiro, you can therefore expect a unique balance between nature and urbanity, between historical heritage and popular culture, or even between the salty flavours of the sea and the estuary and the irresistible sweets inherited from secular know-how. Let yourself be rocked by the moliceiro boats, get lost in the museums, fall in love with the parks, lakes and landscapes that take your breath away…

Aveiro is a city on the west coast of Portugal founded next to a lagoon known as Ria de Aveiro. It is distinguished by its channels navigated by colourful boats (moliceiro boats), traditionally used for seaweed harvesting. Not far from the centre, known for its art nouveau buildings, is the Sé (Cathedral)de Aveiro, with its prominent bell tower. The Museum of Aveiro, located in a former convent, has an extravagant tomb made of marble.

Area: 199.9 km²

Municipal holiday: May 12 (Princess Santa Joana )

Population: 80 978 inhab. (2021)

If the human presence in Aveiro dates back, at least, to Prehistory, evident in the existing mounds and dolmens not only in the municipality but throughout the region, its great development would appear in a historical period.

Always linked to economic activities, Aveiro had its added value in the production of salt and the naval trade.

Valuable as an exchange good, salt, probably already exploited in Roman times, is documented in documents from 959, in the will of Countess Mumadona Dias to the Cenobio [monastery] of Guimarães.

It was in this same will that the oldest known form of the toponym Aveiro appears, in which Mumadona Dias donates the entire region to the monastery of Guimarães "Suis terra in Alauario et Salinas".

At the beginning of the 15th century, the construction of a wall around the urban centre reflects the prestige and growth that Aveiro had achieved. Later, religious and welfare institutions would be installed that, for centuries, would give the city its splendour, helping it to overcome the less favourable moments experienced, in the 17th and 18th centuries, with the progressive silting up of the bar. It will be the artificial opening of this, accomplished in 1808, that will gradually return the dynamism to Aveiro, marking the beginning of a new era.

The preponderance of properties from the 19th and 20th centuries clearly reflects this phase, also revealing the desire to follow the taste of the time, evident in the decoration with Art Nouveau notes of some buildings, repeated in other places in the region, or in the purified lines of an Art Deco and a Modernism driven by the Estado Novo political regime. Today the challenge is on the university campus, where the great national architects work.

Side by side with progress, tradition persists in some ethnographic experiences, as well as in the architecture of the region's rural environment, where various aspects of traditional Portuguese construction materialise in the Gandares house. Aveiro also preserves in Alboi and in the neighbourhood of Beira Mar, single-story tile-covered houses, living testimonies of former marnotos [salt workers] and faithful fishermen devoted to S. Gonçalinho and S. Roque (saints).

In front of you... the Ria with all the beauty of its landscape mixed with islets and creeks teeming with biodiversity.

Then, the dunes of S. Jacinto with its reserve, a sanctuary of nature, and the small town marked by the lagoon work, the Xávega (fishing) art and the distant cod fishing in the cold seas of Newfoundland.

The preponderance of the ceramic industry in the region is not just a reflection of technological advances, it is the result of a long productive tradition favoured by the geological constitution of the region and which dates back, at least, to the late-Roman/Medieval period, as evidenced by the kilns axis ceramics.

Today, a region experiencing strong economic growth manages to combine the testimonies of the past with current demands, involving the University of Aveiro, in a path towards sustainable development that will guarantee the future.

In Aveiro you can practise various sports and develop various activities.

For example, at CAR Surf in São Jacinto, inaugurated on June 25, 2016, the Centro de Alto Rendimiento de Surf (CAR Surf), has already hosted the European Tour Bodyboard 2017, the National Championship of Longboard and Stand Up Paddle (SUP) in 2017 and 2018, and the European Surfing Federation Executive Committee Meeting in December 2017.

The waves of the São Jacinto nature reserve provide the ideal conditions for sports, and there are several elite athletes who use the CAR facilities to train in Surf, Bodyboard & Longboard, SUP and SUP wave.

Some important dates:

10th century

959

The first  reference to Aveiro can be found in the will that Countess Mumadona Dias, widow of Count Hermenegildo, a lady of great nobility and very rich in assets and virtues, made to the Monastery of Guimarães on January 26, 959 regarding the lands "in Alauario et salinas que ibidem comparauimus".

 

twelfth century

1187 | Donation of Aveiro by D. Sancho I to his sister D. Urraca Afonso.

13th century

Aveiro is elevated to town status. .

14th century

1361 | “On May 29, 1361, in the letters from Elvas, the attorneys from Aveiro asked for the freedom to make as much salt as they could, sheltering themselves from the contrary legislation. Later, on January 17, 1434, El-King D. Duarte would confirm and grant the fishermen of Aveiro all their privileges, forums, freedoms, graces, favours, and good customs, which they always used and used to.”

1372 | On April 14, 1372, in a document signed in Avelar, D. Fernando made to D. Leonor Teles a free and pure donation, between living people, of the village with its term and sea port and with all its tithes and tolls, royal tributes,rights and belongings to it, and also with the patronage of the churches, entrances and exits, mountains, fountains, rivers, streams and fisheries.”

XV century

1418

After a devastating fire, and on the initiative of D. João I, the village was rebuilt and surrounded by walls (this fortress was destroyed in the 19th century, with part of the stones used in the construction of the jetties in Barra Nova).

1434 | D. Duarte granted the privilege «to the council of the village of Aveiro to hold a fair there each year, which will begin on the first of May and last until St. Michael's Day (May 8), which is eight days»; and «those who come to buy and sell will pay only half a sum». This fair prevails until today, but in the meantime, it changed to the month of March.

1485 | D. João II, donated the town to his sister, Infante D. Joana, who was taken to the Monastery of Jesus, in Aveiro. The donation was in 1485, with the grantee retaining the ownership until her death, which occurred five years after the donation, on May 12, 1490. The Infanta's stay drew attention to the village and favoured its development. By this time, the village had already extended beyond the walls: on the north bank of the canal, the so-called Vila Nova rises, where the maritime class and the bourgeoisie settled, people dedicated to maritime, commercial, and fishing activities – the cagaréus. To the south of the Vila gate, another housing cluster was formed, made up of people who worked on the farms and fields - the onion growers - it was Cimo de Vila. To the west, yet another neighbourhood emerged, born next to a dam of still and muddy waters, which was perhaps given, because of the proximity to the swamp, the name of Alavô or Alabó – the Albói of our days. The walled area was traditional and noble.

Century XVI

1515 | August 4 is the date of the charter granted by King Manuel I to the village of Aveiro, which appears in the Book of New Readings of Forais de Estremadura.

XVIII century

1759 | D. José I raised Aveiro to city status.

1774 | At the request of King José I, Pope Clement XIV established a new diocese based in Aveiro.

XIX century

The city will occupy the forefront of liberal struggles with personalities such as José Estêvão Coelho de Magalhães standing out for their activity. This parliamentarian also played a decisive role in fixing the current bar and in the development of transport, above all, the passage of the Lisbon-Porto railway line.

1808 | 3 April, artificial opening of Barra de Aveiro by Reinaldo Oudinot and Luís Gomes Carvalho.

1828 | Martires da Liberdade – participation of people from Aveiro in the Porto Revolt in defence of Liberalism, having been killed in 1829. In 1866, their leaders were transferred to the Central Cemetery.

1835 | Administrative reorganisation of the City into two parishes: Glória and Vera Cruz.

1836 | Extinction of the municipalities of Esgueira and Aradas and their annexation to the municipality of Aveiro.

1849 | Creation of the parish of Santo António de Oliveirinha, detached from the Municipality of Eixo.

1853 | Extinction of the Municipality of Eixo and its annexation to the municipality of Aveiro.

1855 | Lugar de São Jacinto is attached to the Parish of Vera Cruz.

1864 | Inauguration of the Aveiro railway station.

1882 | Extinction of the Diocese of Aveiro by Pope Leo XIII.

20th century

1914 | Opening of the Vale do Vouga railway line.

1918 | Installation of the seaplane base in São Jacinto and start of construction on Avenida Central, currently Avenida Dr. Lawrence Peixinho. The work was completed in the thirties.

1938 | Restoration of the Diocese of Aveiro installing the Cathedral in the Church of the Old Dominican Convent of Nossa Senhora da Misericórdia and having D. João Evangelista Lima Vidal as the first Bishop.

1955 | Creation of the Parish of São Jacinto.

1959 | Commemorations of the Millennium of Aveiro.

1965 | Princess Santa Joana officially constituted as patroness of the City and Diocese of Aveiro.

1973 | Democratic Opposition Congress.

1978 | May 12 is instituted as Municipality Day.

1984 | Creation of the parish of Santa Joana.

1985 | Creation of the parish of Nossa Senhora de Fátima.

XXI century

2016 | Implementation of PEDUCA.

2021 | Application of Aveiro to European Capital of Culture.