Praça do Almada

Praça do Almada (Almada's Square) is the civic center of the city of Póvoa de Varzim in Portugal, and is located in Póvoa de Varzim City Center. It contains the sculpture that pays homage to Eça de Queiroz, a notable writer who was born there.

Praça do Almada is about 14,000 square metres (150,000 sq ft) in area. It is considered by the city as free space and part historical area of Póvoa de Varzim district. In 1791, by the royal provision of Queen Mary I, the old Campo da Calçada became the civic center, initially named Praça Nova, or the New Square in English. It was also the place where the first public garden of Póvoa de Varzim was raised, and popular amongst the 19th century bourgeoisie. A legend speaks of a white owl that flies on the square between eleven thirty p.m. and midnight, which is associated with the incarnation of the soul of a person that deeply loved this square and did not want to ever leave it.

The Calçada or Pavement was one of the exits of the urban core of Póvoa de Varzim in the 16th century, at the time the town was centered on Praça Velha, the Old Square. The toponym was assigned to ways, in the North of Portugal, that were paved where it was necessary. To the west, the Calçada ended next to the Town's Pillory of the 1514 Royal Charter by King Manuel I, that Flávio Gonçalves points out the construction in the reign of King John III, a period of local development. On the Pillory site the development of the Street of the Blacksmiths (Rua dos Ferreiros) was initiated in 1568.

In time, the field of the Calçada became the town's Market square. The development of Póvoa de Varzim as an important fishery community in the 18th century prompted the royal provision by Queen Mary I. Forwarded by the queen on February 21, 1791, ordering Corregedor Francisco de Almada e Mendonça (the Almada) to reorganize the urbanization of Póvoa de Varzim, namely the creation of a new square in the old market square and substituting the diminished Old Square as the civic center. It was an area already delimited just north of the Calçada.

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