about the place
Vila Nova de Famalicão is situated in the heart of Minho, in the District of Braga, on a fertile plain crossed by the river Ave. The town has documented roots dating back to 1 July 1205, when King D. Sancho I granted a royal charter to forty settlers, authorising them to manage the royal estate on a hereditary basis and requiring the establishment of a weekly market — a tradition that remains alive to this day. In 1835, Queen D. Maria II elevated the territory to a Municipality, and in the second half of the nineteenth century the region became one of the largest centres of the Portuguese textile industry.
