Description Maia

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Maia is a land full of history and once stretched from the Douro to the Ave. Here are settled Gallic tribes, occupying the Castros at the top of the hills, and later the Romans, who developed villages, tearing roads and building necropolis.

This municipality is strongly linked to the founding of nationality, and saw the birth of D. Gonçalo Mendes da Maia and D. Paio, Archbishop of Braga, two of the men who contributed, together with D. Afonso Henriques, to the creation of Portugal.

Maia is a land of contrasts. Side by side with the growing urban and business development are preserved almost untouched, parcels of genuine rurality, where the relationship between man, land and nature has remained balanced for centuries.

Due to its good hospitality, Maia hosts a large number of small and medium-sized national and international events, making it one of the main cities at the national level to receive business tourism, one of the types of tourism that more grows at the national level.

The whole area of ??the Douro Litoral has an exquisite gastronomy, fruit of the illustrious art of well-cooking, characteristic of the people of the North, highlighting the "Bacalhau à Lidador", "Sardinha de Escabeche à Moda da Maia", Rojões, "Cabrito Roasted à Maiata" and the famous "Cooked Portuguese".

In the sweets, we find the "Sweet-Pepper Chickens", which delight anyone, the "Sweet Bread", the "Aletria", the "French Toast" and the conventual sweets of the Monasteries of Vairão and Stª Clara.

Maia has enviable accessibilities.

With its Francisco Sá Carneiro International Airport, its Municipal Aerodrome of Vilar de Luz, connected to Porto by several highways, Maia is also crossed by two A3 and A4 motorways and by a fast road with characteristics of Freeway (IC24). Also in railway terms the Maia is served by the Minho line.