Santiago de Piães is a Portuguese civil parish ('' freguesia)'' in the municipality of
Cinfães
Cinfães () is a village and a municipality in the northern district of Viseu, Portugal. The village proper has about 3,300 inhabitants. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 20,427,Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE) Census 2011 results according to the 2013 administrative division of Portugal in an area of 17.59 km².Áreas das freguesias, concelhos, distritos e país /ref> The parish contains the localities Cosconhe, Crasto, Lage, Santiago de Piães, Santo António, Sanfins, Ventoselas and Vilar d'Arca.
History
The presence of primitive tribes in this region is reflected in the local toponymy (such as Castro, Cristelo, Cabruela and Concela). Similarly, the Roman occupation is reflected in nuclei such as Vilar de Arca, Cimo de Vila, Cabo de Vila, Vila Verde, Vila de Antomil, Casal Joane, Casal Seco a Póvoa, while Moorish influence is reflected in Outeiro do Mouro and Lapa da Moura, and Christian influences in Sanfins (São Felix), Santa Comba and São Pedro a São Martinho (reflecting the influences of these groups). Before the 12th century, Santiago de Piães was the centre of the medieval magistrium in Sanfins(''San Fiiz'' or ''Sancti Felicis'').
The
castro
Castro is a Romance language word that originally derived from Latin ''castrum'', a pre-Roman military camp or fortification (cf: Greek: ''kastron''; Proto-Celtic:''*Kassrik;'' br, kaer, *kastro). The English-language equivalent is '' chester''.
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and the ''civitas'' (dating to the 9th century) was not linked to the castro of ''Castelo de S. Paio'' (located in the neighbouring parish of São Cristovão de Nogueira), and medieval centre of ''São Salvador''. Sanfins was the seat of the medieval municipality, even as CasconhaCasconha was referred to as ''Cresconii'' in the 9th century; later Cresconhi in the 13th century; and Cresconhe, until the 18th century. attracted most of the nobility, after Egas Moniz raised
Afonso Henriques
Afonso I of PortugalOr also ''Affonso'' (Archaic Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonso'' (Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonsus'' (Latin version), sometimes rendered in English as ''Alphonzo'' or ''Alphonse'', depending on the Spanish or French inf ...
in the municipality. The zone was the site of the ''Casa da Câmara e de Audiências'', but also aldermen of many of the nearby parishes had homes in this parish (as was typical in the Nespereira valley).