Praça Velha

Praça Velha (Old Square), formerly known as Praça (Square), was the primitive civic center and the

market square The market square (or sometimes, the market place) is a square meant for trading, in which a market is held. It is an important feature of many towns and cities around the world.Póvoa de Varzim Póvoa de Varzim (, ) is a Portuguese city in 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 and Douro rivers. In 2001, there were 63, ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

. It is located in

Bairro da Matriz Bairro da Matriz (In Portuguese it means Mother/First Church Quarter) is the historical neighbourhood of the Portuguese city of Póvoa de Varzim and part of the Matriz/Mariadeira district. 180px, left, Matriz/Mariadeira district in the city of ...

historic district and is surrounded by the main church of Póvoa de Varzim (''Igreja Matriz''), the primitive Town Hall and the house of a notable 17th-century Póvoa de Varzim seafarer. Since the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

the ''Praça'' has been used for markets and fairs, to such an extent that the term "''Praça''" is often used for "market" in the local parlance. Praça Velha became the town's urban core in the

Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Ren ...

and was located in the royal land established by the early Portuguese kings after disputes with the Lords of Varzim. Throw Rua de São Pedro street, it bordered the Varzim Old town square, the core of the medieval fiefdom of Varzim. With the Age of Discovery, the area around the square developed with rich architecture built by the seafarers, a local bourgeoisie, and declined with the 1791 royal provision which established the new town square,