Largo das Dores

Largo das Dores or Dores Square is a square in Póvoa de Varzim city center in Portugal. Part of the earliest old town (Vila Velha) of Póvoa de Varzim, this area is listed by City Hall as heritage site. With about 11.000 square meters, its most noticeable features are its two churches, located in the sites of ancient chapels, one of which was the main church of the city.

Dores Square occupies an area, during some periods known as Lugar da Mata, located in Vila Velha - the old town of Varzim. Vila Velha shows traces of having been inhabited since the Roman age, probably dating to the reign of Caesar Augustus; it was probably the original site of the city's first Villa Euracini (Roman villa).

Villa Euracini, then a small town, is referred for the first time in 953. In the Middle Ages, the town's name evolved to Vila Veracin (Town of Varzim). In the 11th century, Henry of Burgundy arrived in Portugal with Guterre Pelayo for the Reconquista. Henry became Count of Portugal and assigned the seaport of Varzim to Guterre Pelayo, and the later became the first Lord of Varzim. It became a powerful fiefdom. With the Portuguese kings disputing the land with the local overlords, the southern area of Vila Veracin became a royal land, where a buffer municipality was established in 1308. The core of Vila Veracin became known as Old town (Vila velha) since 1343.

In the 11th century the northern section of the square housed a chapel, a Romanesque chapel dedicated to Saint James, son of Zebedee. This Gothic-Romanesque chapel became the Main Church of Póvoa de Varzim in 1456, where Our Lady of Varzim, a 13th-century icon, was being venerated.

The story surrounding the change in invocation is told in The News of the Town of Póvoa de Varzim made on May 24, 1758 by Lieutenant Francisco Felix Henriques da Veiga Leal, in which he says "To the west of Misericordia Churchyard [Senhora de Varzim church] there's a field that the people names "Passadas" (steps) or "Pègadinhas" (little footsteps): it is a tradition that in this place, there are dips in some rocks that they know as "passadas" or "pégadas" (footsteps) in which the miraculous icon of Lady of Varzim appeared (…) The seafarers of this town, also the neighboring peoples, have great faith in Her (…) The Portuguese merchant captains of this region passing by this coast they fire a gun salute from their ships. They say that after her apparition they placed her in Madre Deus Chapel, which was within the town, and in the next day the icon was missing; they found it in the same rocky place in which it appeared for the first time. They say that this place of Misericordia church there was a parish chapel, and they say with the invocation of Saint James, not very popular because it had close to it bushes in which several poisonous animals were seen, especially a large snake".

...
Wikipedia