Largo das Dores or Dores Square is a square

Town square

A town square is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings. Other names for town square are civic center, city square, urban square, market square, public square, and town green.Most town squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets,...

 in Póvoa de Varzim

Póvoa de Varzim

Póvoa de Varzim is a Portuguese city in the Norte Region and sub-region of Greater Porto, with a 2011 estimated population of 63,364. According to the 2001 census, there were 63,470 inhabitants with 42,396 living in the city proper. The urban area expanded, southwards, to Vila do Conde, and there...

 city center

Póvoa de Varzim City Center

Póvoa de Varzim City Center or Downtown Póvoa de Varzim is the heart of Póvoa de Varzim in Portugal, and is the location for most of the city's municipal services, tourist attractions and businesses. It is the center, not only for the city or the municipality, but also neighboring municipalities...

 in Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

. Part of the old town

Old Town

Old Town is the typical designation of a historic or original core of a city or town. Although the city may be larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations...

 (Vila Velha) of Póvoa de Varzim, this area is listed by City Hall as heritage site. With about 11.000 square meters, its most noticeable features are its two churches, located in the sites of ancient chapels, one of which was the first church of the city.

Roman and Medieval Knights Varzim

Dores Square occupies an area formerly known as Lugar da Mata, located in Vila Velha - the old town of Varzim. Vila Velha shows traces of having been inhabited since the Roman age, probably dating to the reign of Caesar Augustus; it was probably the original site of the city's first Villa Euracini (Roman villa). In the Middle Ages, the town's name evolved to Vila Veracin (Town of Varzim). The 11th century saw the arrival in Portugal of Henry of Burgundy

Henry, Count of Portugal

Henry of Burgundy, Count of Portugal was Count of Portugal from 1093 to his death. He was brother of Hugh I, Duke of Burgundy, and Odo I, Duke of Burgundy, all sons of Henry, the heir of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy. His name is Henri in modern French, Henricus in Latin, Enrique in modern Spanish...

, who assigned the seaport of Varzim to Guterre Pelayo; by this action, Pelayo became the first Lord of Varzim.

The first church

In the 11th century the northern section of the square housed the Mata Chapel, a Romanesque

Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

 chapel dedicated to Saint James. The Parish of Santa Maria of Póvoa de Varzim is referred, for the first time, in a registry in 1456. Until then Póvoa de Varzim was integrated in the São Miguel-o-Anjo Parish of Argivai

Argivai

Argivai is a Portuguese parish located in the city of Póvoa de Varzim. In the census of 2001, it had a population of 2,187 inhabitants and a total area of 2.32 km²....

, despite the existence of Mata Chapel. This Gothic-Romanesque chapel became the First Church of Póvoa de Varzim, where Our Lady of Varzim, a 13th century icon, was being venerated.

The story surrounding the change in invocation is told in The News of the Town of Póvoa de Varzim made on May 24, 1758 by Lieutenant Francisco Felix Henriques da Veiga Leal, in which he says "To the west of Misericordia Churchyard [Mata Chapel] there's a field that the people names "Passadas" (steps) or "Pègadinhas" (little footsteps): it is a tradition that in this place, there are dips in some rocks that they know as "passadas" or "pégadas" (footsteps) in which the miraculous icon of Lady of Varzim appeared (…) The seafarers of this town, also the neighboring peoples, have great faith in Her (…) The Portuguese merchant captains of this region passing by this coast they fire a gun salute from their ships. They say that after her apparition they placed her in Madre Deus Chapel, which was within the town, and in the next day the icon was missing; they found it in the same rocky place in which it appeared for the first time. They say that this place of Misericordia church there was a parish chapel, and they say with the invocation of Saint James, not very popular because it had close to it bushes in which several poisonous animals were seen especially a large snake".

Lugar da Mata despite being out of the urban core of Póvoa de Varzim, was very busy because it was at a crossroad between several ways, namely the road between Vila do Conde and Esposende, that crossed in there with the ways that arrived from Giesteira

Giesteira

Giesteira or Bairro de Belém is a neighourhood of the Portuguese city of Póvoa de Varzim. It is one of the six traditional neighbourhoods of the city, and one of the eleven city districts...

 and other suburbs.

The church was known to have the icon of a snake, destroyed during the 18th century church improvements. The people associated this serpent icon, typically Romanesque, with the legend of Our Lady of Varzim icon. The traditional Póvoa de Varzim Easter ceremonies appeared in April 1687 in the First Church, due to António Cardia, the cheaf pilot of the Portuguese armada, and his daughter.
In the 18th century, Póvoa was expanding, and Santa Maria de Varzim Church, the ancient Mata chapel, proved to be too small for such a growing community and was not in the civic center of the time. A new first church was inaugurated in 1757 in Praça Velha

Praça Velha

thumb|The new First Church of Póvoa de Varzim, in Baroque style, started being built in 1743.Praça Velha , formerly known as Praça , was the primitive civic center and the market square of the city of Póvoa de Varzim in Portugal...

. The church became known as Misericordia Church, due to a devotee from the oldtown, Maria Fernandes, widow of Manuel Francisco Maio, that left all her wealth to create, in the old first church, the Misericórdia Brotherhood in 1756, reuniting with it, the Passos Brotherhood, that already existed in the temple, by this the Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Póvoa de Varzim is created. The oldtown's population-loss led tat, by mid-18th century, there were only four houses surrounded by farmed fields.

Senhora das Dores Church, from where the square's name derives, in found in front of the old first church, in a small hill where previously the Senhor do Monte (Lord of the Hill) was venerated in another small chapel. The change in invocation occurred in Jully 24th 1768, when the archbishop authorized the placement of a Senhora das Dores icon in the chapel to a group of devotee Latin Grammar students, they were helped by some residents. From then on, the temple was significantly changed for a long period that ended in the 19th century when the six chapels were built.

On June 8, 1784 a curious procession is registered in Dores Square in which the icon of Senhora das Dores is taken to Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo Crucificado in the Misericórdia Church, that by Senhora das Dores intervention, the rain may fall for the lands to be productive. Misericórdia Church, was demolished in 1910 because it was almost in ruins, the lack of architectural grandeur and the expansion of the new beach district's Mouzinho de Albuquerque Avenue. Near the old church, the new Misericórdia Church started being built one year prior to the demolition. Stones with historical or artistic value, such as the Gothic-Romanesque door and signed stones where carefully saved and stored in the City's museum.

The 1811 Famine and the modern period

The harsh long winter of 1811 provoked the 1811 Famine amongst the fishermen and the epidemic that followed it., which led the city hall to obtain a license for the establishment of a provisional hospital in a city hall room in that year. But the room could not substitute a true hospital. City Hall asked King John VI

John VI of Portugal

John VI John VI John VI (full name: João Maria José Francisco Xavier de Paula Luís António Domingos Rafael; (13 May 1767 – 10 March 1826) was King of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves (later changed to just King of Portugal and the Algarves, after Brazil was recognized...

 the definitive establishment of a hospital in town and to look for available land where it would be built. The plea was well received, and there were orders for the project to start in 1819. Only in 1826, seven year on, that the construction works started due to efforts by José António Alves Anjo and other Povoans. The hospital, built behind the old First Church, opened to the public on June 29, 1835.

In 1866, to the east of the hospital, the first cemetery out of churchyards is created, in the place of the old prison, this finally ended the tradition of burial of the deceased inside churches and its yards, especially in the old First Church.

Because it was a square in a strategic location in relation to the city and the surrounding countryside, at Wednesday, Dores square saw the "Wood Fair". This busy market ended in early 1930s. It started at sunrise, when farmers brought pine-wood pieces in their peculiar carts pulled by bulls. The wood was used for preparing meals by housewives, hotels, restaurants and bakeries.

Urban morphology

The contemporary Misericórdia Church (1914), by Adães Bermudes, and the Nossa Senhora das Dores Church (18th century) limit the west side of the square by the north and south, respectively. The square has public health structure of regional relevance: the Hospital Center of Póvoa de Varzim/Vila do Conde and the Centro de Diagnóstico Pneumológico da Póvoa.

Palácio da Justiça (1965), where the Judicial Court of Póvoa de Varzim is located, is a construction with a Estado Novo architectural style by Raul Rodrigues Lima, between the pillars hall the statues of João Feyo are found, one representing Law and the other right. The palace has in its hearing room a fresco that invokes the delivery of the royal charter to Póvoa de Varzim by King Denis

Denis of Portugal

Dinis , called the Farmer King , was the sixth King of Portugal and the Algarve. The eldest son of Afonso III of Portugal by his second wife, Beatrice of Castile and grandson of king Alfonso X of Castile , Dinis succeeded his father in 1279.-Biography:As heir to the throne, Infante Dinis was...

, work by master Augusto Gomes. In front of the palace, the Millennium Mark of March 26, 953 marks the date when Póvoa de Varzim appears for the first time in a known written document with its Latin name Villa Euracini. There's also the GNR republican guard that patrols the countryside of the municipality and the municipal 1925 building in the place of the old Póvoa de Varzim Prise. To the east, the square ends in Sagrado Coração de Jesus College, that belonged to the Dorothean sisters, today controlled by Póvoa de Varzim's Matriz Parish.

The collection of Santa Casa da Misericórdia Museum is noted by the 16th century Pietà painting, of Luis de Morales school, the Senhor da Prisão ex-voto

Ex-voto

An ex-voto is a votive offering to a saint or divinity. It is given in fulfillment of a vow or in gratitude or devotion...

 (painting from 1817 from the old Santa Maria de Varzim church) and the distinct Saint Anthony of Padua icon from the 16th or 17th century, the icon follows a description by a Padua chronicler.

Listed heritage

• Dores Square (free space with patrimonial relevance)
• Palácio da Justiça (Palace of Justice, court)
• Misericórdia Church
• Nossa Senhora das Dores Church
• Misericórdia Hospital(Hospital Center of Póvoa de Varzim/Vila do Conde)
• Old Count Ferreira School (GNR police station)
• Sagrado Coração de Jesus College (primary school)
• Hospital Fountain