Guimarães - Portugal

I've already posted so many cards from Guimarães, that i don't know what else can i say about this lovely city in northern Portugal.

Anyway, these cards were sent by Gracinha and Susana.

 Casa de Recordações

 Guimarães is known as the birthplace of Portugal and the portuguese nationality, because, among other reasons,  the city might have been the birthplace of Afonso I of Portugal, the first Portuguese king. 

D. Afonso (25 June 1109, Guimarães or Viseu – 6 December 1185, Coimbra), achieved the independence of the southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia, the County of Portugal, from Galicia's overlord, the King of León, in 1139, establishing a new kingdom and doubling its area with the Reconquista, an objective that he pursued until his death, in 1185, after forty-six years of wars against the Moors. - in: wikipedia
This statue, now located at the entrance to the Palace of the Dukes of Bragança, was erected 1888 in a different place. It has been at this current location since 1940. The bronze statue symbolizes the conquering king as a hero who fought in defense of the Portuguese kingdom, which he left to conquer Portugal.

 © M. R.

Susana had a lovely baby girl last year and she already started to travel. This is a card from her 1st travel. Symbol of faith and beacon of Guimarães, the Sanctuary of the Penha is a monument of a singular beauty and a worth architectural and religious. 

The Sanctuary of the Penha is a unique example of religious architecture of Marques da Silva. In 1930, the recognized architect, a real “friend of the Penha", was entrusted of the project and the choice of the implantation local. The work of regularization of the land began on 6 August of that year.
Inaugurated in 1947, is a monument of a singular beauty and a worth architectural and religious. An emblematic piece of Guimarães. - in: http://www.penhaguimaraes.com/eng/santuario.htm