page_title: Póvoa de Varzim
section_title: Countryside
hierarchical_section_title: Póvoa de Varzim / Cityscape / Countryside
caption_attribution_description: San Pedro de Rates: ábsides
context_page_description: Póvoa de Varzim is a Portuguese city in Northern Portugal and sub-region of Greater Porto, 30 km from its city centre. It sits in a sandy coastal plain, a cuspate foreland, halfway between the Minho and Douro rivers. In 2001, there were 63,470 inhabitants, with 42,396 living in the city proper. The city expanded, southwards, to Vila do Conde, and there are about 100,000 inhabitants in the urban area alone. It is the seventh-largest urban agglomeration in Portugal and the third largest in Northern Portugal.
  Permanent settlement in Póvoa de Varzim dates back to around four to six thousand years ago; around 900 BC, unrest in the region led to the establishment of Cividade de Terroso, a fortified city, which developed maritime trade routes with the civilizations of classical antiquity. Modern Póvoa de Varzim emerged after the conquest by the Roman Republic of the city by 138 BC; fishing and fish processing units soon developed, which became the foundations of the local economy.
context_section_description: The green belt of Póvoa de Varzim includes a web of 98 localities in the parishes of Aguçadoura, Amorim, Balazar, Beiriz, Estela, Laundos, Navais, Rates, and Terroso. São Pedro de Rates, Codixeira, Aldeia, Pedreira, Fontainhas, Areosa, Teso, and Santo André de Baixo are the main rural communities, but there are tiny villages, such as Além, Calves, Gestrins, Gresufes, Passô, Sejães, and Crasto.
  Terroso, Amorim and Beiriz are located in the urban hinterland. Beiriz has the notorious Beiriz carpets and diverse old country estates such as villas and a tapada, a hunting park, while Amorim is known for the bread eaten at high temperatures just after being made — the Broa de Amorim. The hills of Póvoa de Varzim: Cividade and São Félix are located in Terroso and Laúndos, respectively. On the first hill, there is Cividade de Terroso, with 3 thousand years was one of the major Castro culture cities, and the eremite Saint Félix is thought to have lived on the second hill during the Middle Ages.
  Rates was a small town during the Middle Ages which developed around the monastery established by Count Henry in 1100 on the site of an older temple and gained importance due to the legend of Saint Peter of Rates, first bishop of Braga, becoming a central site in the Portuguese way of Saint James. Of the millenarian monastery, the São Pedro de Rates Church remains and is one of the oldest and best preserved Romanesque monuments in Portugal and is classified as national monument since 1910. Bordering Rates, Balazar became a Christian pilgrimage destination in the 20th century due to Alexandrina Maria da Costa, died 1955, who gained fame as a Saint, beatified by Pope John Paul II.
  The northern sandy land of the municipality, Aguçadoura, Navais, and Estela is the farming area of Póvoa de Varzim, supplying the European markets with horticultural goods. In old times, the population attributed legends, magical virtues or therapeutic effects to several springs. In Navais, there is the very ancient Moura Encontada Fountain, associated with Moura — a feminine water deity and guardian of enchanted treasures.
caption: The Monastery of Rates was established in 1100 AD, but there are traces in the church that date back to the Roman Empire.
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