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Mindelo, Portugal

Mindelo
Parish
Mindelo Ornithological Reserve
Coat of arms of Mindelo
Coat of arms
LocalFregVilaDoConde-Mindelo.svg
Coordinates: 41°18′50″N 8°43′12″W / 41.314°N 8.720°W / 41.314; -8.720Coordinates: 41°18′50″N 8°43′12″W / 41.314°N 8.720°W / 41.314; -8.720
Country Portugal
Region Norte
Subregion Grande Porto
Metropolitan area Porto
District Porto
Municipality Vila do Conde
Area
 • Total 5.74 km2 (2.22 sq mi)
Elevation 27 m (89 ft)
Population (2011)
 • Total 3,491
 • Density 610/km2 (1,600/sq mi)
Postal code 4485
Area code 252
Patron São João Baptista
Website http://www.jf-mindelo.pt/

Mindelo is a civil parish in Vila do Conde Municipality, along the Green Coast in continental Portugal. Situated 21 km northwest of Porto, it is part of the Greater Metropolitan Area of Porto. The population in 2011 was 3,491, in an area of 5.74 km².

A land with more than 1000 years of history, the first documents from Mindelo date back to the 10th century. The first registered reference to the region, dates back to 1068, to the village of Amidjelus, that would become Mindelo. Other resources suggest that the local toponymy developed from the terms Amenidello, Amenitello, Amenitelo or Menidello, from the name of a knight, during the age of Vimara Peres, who settled in the area and battled Arab forces.

Ancestral records and property titles are also mentioned in successive records for 1069, 1081, 1082, 1095 and 1127. After administrative reforms in 1258, clearer records identified the places within the parish, such as Igreja, Passos, Pinheiro, Gondosendo, Outeiro, Manhalde and Paredes. Each of these localities were composed of many families, while a few pertained specifically to the King. This was related to Medieval donations of land or testaments that left many of those properties in the hands of the church, such as the Monasteries of Vairão, Moreira, Santo Tirso and Roriz.

In 1081, Mindelo had their own religious temple, located in Burgal (which itself received its name from its populational movement, developed from the toponumy burgh). The current parochial church dates back to the 18th century, with contracts signed with quarrymen and carpenters in 1770, during a period of Portuguese religious construction.

In the 16th century, King Manuel of Portugal in Évora issued a regal charter (Portuguese: foral) to the municipality of Maia, which included Mindelo at the time. Since 6 November 1836, it was integrated into the municipality of Vila do Conde. The delineation of the parish of Mindelo dates back to 1611. On 20 October of that year, the Monastery of Moreira defined the limits of the ecclesiastical parish in the presence of the abbeys of Fajozes and Vila Chã, representatives of Cabido da Sé do Porto and the Monastery of Vairão. António do Carmo Reis (1997) referred to Mindelo " until the first decades of the 20th century, Mindelo was a vast area between the River Ave and the mouth of the River Leça, with, canonically, a clergy of the Cónegos Regrantes de Santo Agostinho, in the Convent of Moreira da Maia".


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Wikipedia

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