Santo Tirso () is a city and municipality located in the north of

Porto Metropolitan Area The Porto Metropolitan Area ( pt, Área Metropolitana do Porto; abbreviated as AMP) is a metropolitan area in northern Portugal centered on the City of Porto, Portugal's second largest city.Fernanda Paula Oliveira (2009), The metropolitan area, ...

, 25 km from central

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropo ...

, Portugal. In the region, the

Ave Valley The Comunidade Intermunicipal do Ave () is an administrative division in Portugal. It was created in 2009. It takes its name from the Ave River. The seat of the intermunicipal community is Guimarães. Ave comprises parts of the former districts ...

, there is a large center of textile industry. The population in 2011 was 71,530, in an area of 136.60 km². Another important center in the municipality is

Aves Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

. The Santo Tirso Monastery built in 978 is a point of interest.

History

The History of Santo Tirso is tied to its

benedictine monastery , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , found ...

. The town grew around it and, from 978 until 1834, it was a "couto" – a neutral area that belonged to the clergy. Known initially as Santo Tirso de Riba de Ave, this city has been the capital of a municipality at least since 1833. Its composition changed throughout the years, especially in 1998, when the nearby city of

Trofa Trofa () is a municipality in the north of the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, 18 km from central Porto. The population in 2011 was 38,999, in an area of 72.02 km². Trofa has a strong industrial park, with various types of industry ...

created its own municipality, taking some of Santo Tirso's towns with it. Towards the middle of the 19th century, Santo Tirso spearheaded the industrialization of the

. One of the first textile factories in the region, the Fábrica de Fiação e Tecidos do Rio Vizela, opened in

Vila das Aves Aves is an industrial town and civil parish (freguesia) in northern Portugal. The population in 2011 was 8,458, in an area of 6.16 km².

, part of its municipality, in 1845. This factory would become the largest of its kind in Portugal, with an area of about nine square kilometres and employing, at one point, over 3.000 people.

Geography

The highest point in the municipality is in the Alto de S. Jorge, in the parish of Refojos, with 527 meters of altitude. The municipality's current perimeter is .

Climate

Santo Tirso has a

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

with warm to hot summers and mild, very wet winters.

Parishes

Administratively, the municipality is divided into 14 civil parishes (''

freguesias ''Freguesia'' (), usually translated as "parish" or "civil parish", is the third-level administrative subdivision of Portugal, as defined by the 1976 Constitution. It is also the designation for local government jurisdictions in the former Port ...

''): * Agrela * Água Longa * Areias, Sequeiró, Lama e Palmeira *

* Carreira e Refojos de Riba de Ave * Lamelas e Guimarei * Monte Córdova * Rebordões * Reguenga * Roriz * Santo Tirso, Couto (Santa Cristina e São Miguel) e Burgães * São Tomé de Negrelos * Vila Nova do Campo * Vilarinho

Sports

Santo Tirso is home of the historic football club Futebol Clube Tirsense and C.D. Aves.

Notable people

* Luís Gonzaga Ferreira da Silva (1923–2013) a Prelate of the Catholic Church & bishop of the Diocese of Lichinga * Sofia Andrade (born 1988) a Portuguese politician

Sport

Alberto Festa Alberto Augusto Antunes Festa (born 21 July 1939) is a Portuguese retired footballer who played as a right back. Club career Born in Santo Tirso, Porto District, Festa started and finished his 17-year senior career with local club F.C. Tirse ...

(born 1939) a retired footballer with 143 club caps and 19 for

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 th ...

* José Pacheco (born 1942) a former cyclist, competed at the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...

* Quim Machado (born 1966) a former footballer with 320 club caps a current manager. * Gaspar Azevedo (born 1975) known as ''Gaspar'', a retired footballer with 429 club caps * Ricardo Rocha (born 1978) a retired footballer with 362 club caps and 6 for

* Pedro Moutinho (born 1979) a retired footballer with 343 club caps * Orlando Neto (born 1979), known as ''Orlando'', a former footballer with 386 club caps *

Rui Pedro Silva Rui Pedro Silva (born 6 May 1981 in Santo Tirso) is a Portuguese track and field athlete specialized in long distance and cross country running. With Benfica, he won the Portuguese Road Men's Championship on 12 January 2014, repeating the ...

(born 1981) a track and field, long distance and cross country athlete, competed at the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, th ...

Sara Moreira Sara Isabel Fonseca Moreira (; born 17 October 1985) is a Portuguese runner who competes in cross country, road running and in middle-distance and long-distance track events. She represents Sporting CP at club level. After ...

(born 1985) a cross country, road, middle & long distance track runner.

References

External links

Santo Tirso City Fporum

F.C. Tirsense

On-line Journal Santo Tirso.eu

Online Santo Tirso Portal
{{Authority control Cities in Portugal Municipalities of Porto District