Vila Viçosa, Alentejo, Portugal - Tourism Information

Vila Viçosa has, since its foundation, been the birthplace of illustrious people. Kings and Queens, Princes and Princesses, aristocrats and clergy, wise men and artists form a noteworthy gallery of great fame. The names of these people - or some of them at least - have been preserved in street names or in monuments.

Among others we can mention the following: King John IV, whose statue has dominated the square in front of the palace where he was born since 1943

Catherine of Braganza, his daughter, who was later to become Queen of England through her marriage to King Charles II. Duarte de Braganza, the King's brother, a general in the Thirty Years' War. Constantino de Braganza, Viceroy of India. Salvador de Brito Pereira, father of São João de Brito (St. John de Brito). Martim Afonso de Sousa, Commander-in-Chief of the navy in India and founder of Rio de Janeiro. Públia Hortênsia de Castro, born in 1548, who studied Humanities at the University of Coimbra, a bust of whom has stood in the square in front of Santo Agostinho (St. Augustine) since 1960 Henrique Pousão, a master of Impressionist painting who was born in 1859 - a monument with a bronze bust of the artist and basrelief depictions of some of his works was erected in Praga da Republica in 1943. Florbela Espanca, the illustrious Portuguese poetess, whose monument has stood in the Mata Municipal since 1964, the very year her mortal

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