Description Esposende

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Belonging to the district of Braga, Esposende is its only county with connection to the ocean. Situated on a strip of the Portuguese coastline, on the Atlantic axis between Vigo and Porto, its neighbors are Viana do Castelo, Póvoa de Varzim, Barcelos and Braga.

Human occupation in the area of ??the current municipality of Esposende is very old, with archaeological evidence dating back to a prehistory of which only stone or ceramic artifacts remain. The metal industries are also present in the archeology of the region, and the Roman occupation is known through archaeological and documentary ways. So too for the barbarian kingdoms and the Middle Ages.

The time of the great Atlantic voyages was significant for Esposende, and the people cried out to the King, repeatedly, for privileges that were slow to arrive. That is why the date of 1572 has so much echo in the collective memory of Esposende: D. Sebastião elevated the Vila to the “place”, creating the Municipality that today exists.

To the traditional salt extraction industry, and to the agriculture and pastoralists of the past, in the age of navigation, shipbuilding and maritime trade were joined. The gold of Brazil also arrived in Esposende, and, later, some left here to return later as “Brazilians on a trip”. It is not surprising that heritage wealth has a strong mark from those centuries after the 16th.

In a municipality that reconciles all aspects of nature, Esposende has to offer extensive sands and dunes, pine forests and forest areas, hills and fossil cliffs, rivers and the sea, all framed in a dynamic balance and which allow to affirm: “Esposende, a privilege of nature ”.

The Cávado estuary and associated marshland, present themselves as a strategic place for migratory birds that seek in these places a refuge from the cold of the harshest winters in North and Central Europe. The river Neiva and its clear waters, the green of the pine forest of Ofir and the breathtaking views that the different viewpoints offer over Esposende, are just some of the reasons of interest of the municipality in which the richness of the natural landscape and the heritage built by the human hand, as in the case of windmills, masseira fields, watermills and castros, combine in a unique harmony, constituting landscapes of high scenic and environmental value and which confirm Esposende as one of the most beautiful municipalities in the North region.