Monday, November 10, 2014
© * Vila Vicosa
Vila Vicosa has many major sights but its main attraction is that it is the most beautiful of the marble towns to walk around. The buildings are elegant, the windows and doorways tastefully framed with weather-worn marble cantarias and at first-floor height there are often arched arcades and wrought iron balconies. The doors all have their odd knocker; some a simple hand holding a ball, others as intricate as a brace of duck dangling a tortoise. The name Val Vicosa - meaning verdant valley - was given to the town after the reconquest in 1270 under Afonso III. André de Resende, a 16th century Portuguese historian, referred to the town as Calipole (Greek for "good city") and the local people are still known as Calipolense.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Vila Vicosa, ville très agréable, abondamment fleurie et arborée, aux maisons blanches cernées de jaune. Ancienne résidence des ducs de Bragance et de quelques rois, elle conserve de cette époque un air de noblesse un peu fanée. Dans les environs du lieu, en 1655, l'ultime bataille avec L'Espagne qui
ReplyDeleteconsacra définitivement l'indépendance du Portugal.
Arrêtez-vous sur la place du palais ducal. D'un côté, le Panthéon des Duchesses (aujourd'hui Pousada), l'église et le couvent des Changas de Christo. De l'autre le Panthéon des Ducs, l'église de Nossa Senhora da Graca et le monastère de Santo Agostinho.
Au centre, la statue équestre de D. Joao IV, le premier roi de la dynastie de Braganca.
Et, en toile de fond, le palais ducal. Alors, visite obligatoire, qui demande que vous passiez au moins plus d'une journée sur place.
Tourisme Vila Vicosa 00351 268 889 317, Hospedaria Dom Carlos, en face du Tourisme, 00351 268 980 318, Restaurante Tasca O Necas 00351 268 881 197, GNR Posto Vila Vicosa 00351 268 980 469, Bon Chemin.
Vila Vicosa, domitated by its bastioned castle which was the original "solar" or seat of the ducal family of Braganza, was briefly Edmund of Cambridge's headquarters in the Anglo-Portuguese campaign of 1382.
ReplyDeleteThe Paco Ducal is mainly 17th Century. It was here that the future Joao IV received the first overtures of the nationalist party, which were to bring about his accession in 1640.
Catherine of Braganza was born here two years earlier, while Dom Carlos passed his last night here before his assassination in Lisbon in 1908.
In the neighbourhood took place the battle of Montes Claros(June 1665), in which the Count-Duke Frederick of Schomberg, with a British contingent, befeated the Spanish under the Marquès de Caracena.
Câmara Municipal Vila Vicosa 00351 268 889 310, Bombeiros V. Vila Vicosa 00351 268 889 160, Hotel Solar dos Mascarenhas 00351 268 886 000, Rest. Taverna dos Conjurados 00351 268 989 530.
Vila Vicosa, Braganca´s base, the seat of the dukes of Braganca.
ReplyDeleteIt comes as quite a surprise after the Moorish-influenced towns perched on the hilltops. It is cool and shady, its large main square (Praca da República) is filled with orange trees, and elsewhere there are lemon trees and lots of flowers. Vicosa means lush, and its luxuriant boulevards are a pleasure to walk.
A lovely, if rather overgrown, medieval castle overlooks the town square. It is very peaceful there, the only sound being the cooing of its white fan-tail doves which nest in the ramparts.The drawbridge is lowered across the (dry) moat and the first floor has
becomea modest archaeological museum.
Vila Vicosa is best known for the Paco Ducal (the Ducal Palace of the Bragancas), a three-storey building with a long facade, which is open to the public for guided tours. Its furniture, paintings and tapestries are very fine, and definitely worth seeing. The palace also contains an excellent collection of 17th- to 19th-Century coaches.
The palace overlooks a square in which stands a bronze statue of Joao IV, the first king of the Braganca dynasty. To the north of the square is a striking gateway, the Manualine Porta do Nó (Knot Gate), a stone archway which appears to be roped together, and is part of the 16th-Century town walls.
Bom Caminho.
Vila Vicosa, Murder Most Royal.
ReplyDeleteIn 1512 one of the Duke of Braganca's men passed on to his master the news that a young man was secretly visiting the Duchess by night when he was away from the palace.
The Duke kept watch in the garden, and his suspicions were confirmed when he spotted a boy about climbing through one of the upstairs windows.
The Duke shouted a threat, causing the young man to fall to his death.
He then confronted his wife, who protested her innocence but to no avail; the enraged Duke killed her with his sword.
Too late he discovered that the young man, a page, had been visiting one of the Duchess' ladies in-waiting.
Tourist Office Vila Vicosa, 00351 268 889 317, Alentejo Marmòris Hotel *****, reservas@alentejomarmoris.com / 00351 268 887 010, Hospederia Dom Carlos, 00351 268 980 318, Rest. Tasca O Necas, Rua Cristovao Brito Pereira, N^13, 00351 268 881 197.
Bom Caminho.
Vila Vicosa, die Stadt der Könige und Königinnen die eng verbunden ist mit der Geschichte Portugals.
ReplyDeleteVale Vicoso, wie die Portugiesen der Reconquista den Ort ursprünglich nannten, erhielt 1270 von König Afonso III die Stadtrechte und entwickelte sich zu einem der schönsten Orte des Alentejo.
Vila Vicosa, von vielen als "Prinzessin des Alentejo" bezeichnet, kann eine Reihe illusterer Namen aufweisen.
Der talentierte Maler Henrique Pousao, die große Lyrikerin Florbela Espanca, König Joao IV, der Restaurador, und seine Tochter Katharina von Braganca, die einzige Portugiesin auf dem Englischen
Thron, erblickten hier das Licht der Welt.
Seit dem 15. Jahrhundert befindet sich die Residenz der Herzöge von Braganca in der Stadt. Herzog Jaime veranlasste nach seiner Rückkehr aus dem Exil in Spanien 1501 den Bau des prunkvollen Herzogspalast.
Ein Höhepunkt in der Geschichte von Vila Vicosa stellt die Geburt von Joao II, dem achten Herzog von Braganca am 19. März 1604 dar.
Er stand an der Spitze des erfolgreichen Aufstands von 1640 gegen die Herrschaft Spaniens in Portugal und wurde am 15. Dezember als Joao IV zum König gekrönt.
Als erster Herrscher aus dem Hause Braganca legte er den Grundstein für die bis zur Ausrufung der Republik anhaltende Königsdynastie der Braganca.
Fremdenverkehrsamt Vila Vicosa, Stempel(carimbo), 00351 268 889 317, Hotel Marmòris*****, 00351 268 887 010, Hospederia D. Carlos, fragen nach Pilger-Rabatt mit Credencial, 00351 268 980 318, Hospederia "O Paraiso", 00351 268 980 392, Rest. "Tasca O Necas", Favorit bei Pilgern, preiswert und schmackhaft, 00351 969 149 029, Rest. Esplanada Café, 00351 268 980 256.
Bom Caminho.