Vidago is a village and a former-

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

of Chaves, in the Portuguese

district of Vila Real The District of Vila Real ( pt, Distrito de Vila Real ) is a district of northern Portugal. With an area of , the district is located east of the port city of Porto and north of the Douro, Douro River. Vila Real has always belonged to the his ...

. Until its merger into the parish of

Vidago, Arcossó, Selhariz e Vilarinho das Paranheiras Vidago, Arcossó, Selhariz e Vilarinho das Paranheiras is a civil parish in the municipality of Chaves, Portugal. It was formed in 2013 by the merger of the former parishes Vidago, Arcossó, Selhariz and Vilarinho das Paranheiras. The population i ...

., the civil parish administered an area of and included a population of 1186 inhabitants.

History

Known as a spa town, Vidago was a centre of mineral water treatments dating back to the late 19th century and early 20th century. For a long time distance was an impediment to the development of the town, due to the difficulty of transport. Guests would arrive by coach from Porto, using roads that were often little more than dirt path. Finally in 1907 the railroad between Régua and Vila Real was extended to Pedras Salgadas, to the south of Vidago. Three years later the first train arrived at the Vidago station, resulting in renewed popularity of the spa. During the Gilded Age, the popularity of the waters in Vidago resulted in the construction of the

Hotel Palace of Vidago The Hotel Palace of Vidago ( pt, Hotel Palace em Vidago), is a hotel located in the civil parish of Vidago, Arcossó, Selhariz e Vilarinho das Paranheiras, in the municipality of Chaves, Portuguese district of Vila Real. History The first hy ...

, which became the retreat of some Portuguese monarchs. The spa town saw its period of splendor from 1875 to 1877 when King

Luís I Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

made consecutive visits. The fame of the curative powers of the waters spread so far that from 1876 to 1889 they were awarded prizes in Madrid, Paris, Vienna and Rio de Janeiro. For this, Vidago was once one of the most visited Portuguese spas; the water is apparently effective in the treatment of digestive problems, as it contains sodium bicarbonate and, according to publicity leaflets, radioactive elements. Bottled mineral waters ''Salus'' and ''Campilho'' are extracted in Vidago. When the Palace Hotel was built in 1910, it was one of the most luxurious on the Iberian Peninsula, that included concerts, tennis and croquet courts, and, on the small island within the lake, there was a spacious skating rink. Following a period of remodelling, refurbishing and renovation, the 5-star hotel reopened in 2010, which included an expanded golf course and park.

References

{{Reflist Former parishes of Chaves