Póvoa de Varzim City Hall (Portuguese: ''Câmara Municipal da Póvoa de Varzim'') is the seat of government of the municipality of

Póvoa de Varzim Póvoa de Varzim (, ) is a Portugal, Portuguese city in Norte Region, Portugal, Northern Portugal and sub-region of Greater Porto, from its city centre. It sits in a sandy coastal plain, a cuspate foreland, halfway between the Minho River, Minho ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. It houses the office of the mayor of Povoa de Varzim, the

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

chamber, as well as other city services. The current building was designed by Reinald Oudinot in late 18th-century

Neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing sty ...

and is located at

Praça do Almada 280px, The Pelourinho, the 16th-century town pillory. The square's plate. The square name honors an 18th-century politician that prompted Póvoa de Varzim's urban development in the late 1700s. Praça do Almada (Almada's Square) is the civic cent ...

square in

Póvoa de Varzim City Center Póvoa de Varzim City Center or Downtown Póvoa de Varzim (Portuguese, ''Centro'') 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, n ...

. Póvoa's original town hall is located at

Praça Velha Praça Velha (Old Square), formerly known as Praça (Square), was the primitive civic center and the market square of the city of Póvoa de Varzim in Portugal. It is located in Bairro da Matriz historic district and is surrounded by the main chur ...

, the late medieval core of the municipality of Póvoa de Varzim.

History

Póvoa de Varzim City Hall was part of the project for the urban rearrangement of Póvoa de Varzim in late 18th century aiming to build a new civic center and replacing an earlier town hall, during the reign of Queen Maria I. The project was delivered by the shire's ''corregedor'' Francisco de Almada e Mendonça to the French engineer Reinaldo Ourdinot. The project started being executed in 1790-1791. The new city hall aimed to substitute the ancient and small town hall in the Old Square, insufficient for the diverse municipal departments and other functions that the ancient town hall had, the new project also took into account the considerable increase in population. The new city hall, with its political functions beginning in 1807, was built to serve as the headquarters of the municipal powers and as a retirement home for the shire's ''corregedores'' (representatives of the royal jurisdiction).

Architecture

The town hall was built between 1790 and 1791 to a design by French engineer Reinald Oudinot. The building follows the neoclassical principles of late 18th-century urbanism. The façade is solid and slightly archaic, reminding the English

feitoria Factory was the common name during the medieval and early modern eras for an entrepôt – which was essentially an early form of free-trade zone or transshipment point. At a factory, local inhabitants could interact with foreign merchants, o ...

in Porto, which is visible in the arch stonework in the ground floor. The upper floor has rectangular windows over the ground floors' arches axes. The straight platband that completes the façade is cut, at the middle, by an imposing royal coat-of-arms. In an 1868 description it was said about the building: "One of the buildings that immediately grabs the attention of the traveler, once entering the town, it is, without doubt, the town hall. It is located in a beautiful square, named do Almada, in the town centre, and it has majestic appearance". The building's present-day appearance is due to the actions of Rocha Peixoto and financial support from the Bonitos de Amorim family, a local family who got rich in Brazil, who added

azulejo ''Azulejo'' (, ; from the Arabic ''al- zillīj'', ) is a form of Spanish and Portuguese painted tin-glazed ceramic tilework. ''Azulejos'' are found on the interior and exterior of churches, palaces, ordinary houses, schools, and nowadays, r ...

s, in 1908–10, a work by the Belgian painter Joseph Bialman. Since 1974, the building is protected by the Portuguese national monuments institute, the IGESPAR, as a "Building of Public Importance".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Povoa De Varzim City Hall Government buildings completed in 1791 City and town halls in Portugal Buildings and structures in Póvoa de Varzim Tourist attractions in Póvoa de Varzim 1791 establishments in Portugal