Vila Nova de Gaia

Vila Nova de Gaia
Vila Nova de Gaia
Settlement
	Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal.
	Flag Coat of arms
	Coordinates: 41°08′N 8°37′W / 41.133°N 8.617°W
Country	Portugal
Region	Norte
Metropolitan area	Porto
District	Porto
Area
• Total	168.46 km2 (65.04 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	302,295
• Density	1,800/km2 (4,600/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+00:00 (WET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+01:00 (WEST)
Website	www.cm-gaia.pt

Vila Nova de Gaia, or simply Gaia (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈvilɐ ˈnɔvɐ ðɨ ˈɣajɐ]; Template:Lang-cel-x-proto) is a city and a municipality in Porto District in Norte Region, Portugal. It is located south of the city of Porto on the other side of the Douro River. The city proper had a population of 178,255 in 2001.^[1] The municipality has an area of 168.46 km².^[2] and a total population of 302,295 inhabitants (2011),^[3] making it the most populous municipality in Norte Region. Gaia together with Porto and 12 other municipalities makes up the commonly designated Porto Metropolitan Area.

The city contains many cellars (locally known as "caves") where port wine is stored and aged. These cellars have become a major tourist attraction.

History

Douro River

Another view of Gaia

Vila Nova de Gaia already existed under the Roman Empire as the city of Cale. It developed most likely from a preexistent Celtic Castro, or Neolithic settlement. The origin of the name Cale^[4] (or Gale, since in Classical Latin there was not always a clear distinction between the letters "g" and "c") is likely Celtic, from the root "Gall-" with which Celts referred to themselves, similarly to Galicia, Gaul or Galway. The river itself has a Celtic name, Douro (Latinised Durus) after Celtic "dwr", deep water, water or river.^[5]^[6] In Roman times the bulk of the population probably lived south of the river Douro, and on the north side, there was a smaller settlement around the deep water port which now is the Ribeira neighbourhood of Porto. The name of Porto, in high medieval times Portus Cale, thus stood for the harbour ("portus" in Latin) of the city of Cale. With the important trade of the river Douro, which is easily navigable up to the Régua deep inland, the Porto part of the city came to overgrow Cale, and became the most important part of town, where the Bishopric and the merchants were established.

With the Moorish invasions in the eighth century C.E., the de facto frontier between the Islamic state and the Christian one came to rest for a considerable period of time on the river Douro. With the constant raids and counter-raids, the town of Cale, or Gaia, was deserted and most of its inhabitants took refuge in Porto in the North side of the river. After the conquest and pacification of the southern side of the Douro river after 1035, with the exodus or expulsion of the Muslim populations, leaving behind semi-abandoned fertile lands, colonists from the north settled in exchange for better feudal contracts with the newly appointed lords. These migrants refounded the old city of Cale or Gaia under the name of Vila Nova de Gaia (new town of Gaia) around the old castle and ruins of "old Gaia".

The name of the double city of Porto and Gaia was frequently referred to in contemporary documents as "villa de Portucale", and the county of the Kingdom of León which was centered on it was named Condado Portucalense. This county was eventually expanded and after gaining its independence, became the Kingdom of Portugal.

Parishes

Administratively, the municipality is divided into 15 civil parishes (freguesias):^[7]

Parish	Population^[8]	Area (km²)^[2]
Arcozelo	14,352	8.50
Avintes	11,497	8.82
Canelas	13,459	6.90
Canidelo	27,769	8.93
Grijó e Sermonde	11,938	12.99
Gulpilhares e Valadares	22,019	10.61
Madalena	10,040	4.69
Mafamude e Vilar do Paraíso	52,422	10.58
Oliveira do Douro	22,383	7.54
Pedroso e Seixezelo	20,426	20.88
Sandim, Olival, Lever e Crestuma	17,168	34.16
Santa Marinha e São Pedro da Afurada	33,714	6.91
São Félix da Marinha	12,706	7.93
Serzedo e Perosinho	14,250	11.97
Vilar de Andorinho	18,155	7.07

The parish Santa Marinha e São Pedro da Afurada contains the city centre of Vila Nova de Gaia.

Coat of arms and flag

The coat of arms consists of a grey crest with two golden-yellow bunches of grapes on the bottom with a black castle over the water, and with a person blowing the horn. The grapes intend to represent the city's connection with the wine industry, mainly Port wine, whose cellars are in the lower part of the city.

The flag is colored dark yellow to black in four each.

Leisure

Vila Nova de Gaia is the Portuguese municipality with the biggest number of Blue Flag beaches in 2009 and in 2010: 17 beaches along 17 km of seaside. Some popular beaches are: Miramar, Granja, Aguda, Valadares, Francelos, Madalena and Canidelo. The city attracts a great number of tourists and the wine cellars are considered to be a must-see in any trip to area of Porto.

Gallery

Apartment buildings in the parish of Mafamude
Beach in Miramar
Metro next to El Corte Inglés
Soares dos Reis Square
Gaia at night
Gaia
Vila Nova de Gaia
Tower Plaza Regino, Gaia
Vila Nova de Gaia
Downtown Gaia
Vila Nova de Gaia
Vila Nova de Gaia TV Tower
Gaia
Vila Nova de Gaia
Porto Urban Area
Vila Nova de Gaia
Gaia

Sister City

Vila Nova de Gaia is twinned with:

Concord, United States of America

References

^ Uma População que se urbaniza, Uma avaliação recente - Cidades, 2004 Archived October 6, 2014, at the Wayback Machine Nuno Pires Soares, Instituto Geográfico Português (Geographic Institute of Portugal)
^ ^a ^b Direção-Geral do Território^{[permanent dead link‍]}
^ Instituto Nacional de Estatística
^ http://www.faclair.com/?txtSearch=Cala
^ ^ Matasović, Ranko (2009), “*dubro-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-17336-1, pages 107-108
^ ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), “*dʰeu̯b-”, in Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon [Nouns in the Indo-European Lexicon] (in German), Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, pages 122-124
^ Diário da República. "Law nr. 11-A/2013, pages 552 134-135" (pdf) (in Portuguese). Retrieved 4 August 2014.
^ Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE), Census 2011 results according to the 2013 administrative division of Portugal

External links

[1] Uma População que se urbaniza, Uma avaliação recente - Cidades, 2004 Archived October 6, 2014, at the Wayback Machine Nuno Pires Soares, Instituto Geográfico Português (Geographic Institute of Portugal)

[dgt-2] Direção-Geral do Território^{[permanent dead link‍]}

[3] Instituto Nacional de Estatística

[4] ttp://www.faclair.com/?txtSearch=Cala

[5] Matasović, Ranko (2009), “*dubro-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-17336-1, pages 107-108

[6] Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), “*dʰeu̯b-”, in Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon [Nouns in the Indo-European Lexicon] (in German), Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, pages 122-124

[7] Diário da República. "Law nr. 11-A/2013, pages 552 134-135" (pdf) (in Portuguese). Retrieved 4 August 2014.

[ine-8] Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE), Census 2011 results according to the 2013 administrative division of Portugal

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