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FRDescription Tondela
Tondela is a Portuguese city in the district of Viseu, located in the province of Beira Alta, in the Centro region (Beiras Region) and sub-region Viseu Dão-Lafões, with about 4 500 inhabitants. It is the fourth largest city in the district of Viseu, behind Viseu, Lamego and Mangualde.
It is the seat of a municipality with 371.22 km² in area and 28,946 inhabitants (2011), subdivided into 19 parishes. The municipality is limited to the north by the municipality of Vouzela and the southern portion of Oliveira de Frades, to the northeast by Viseu, to the southeast by Carregal do Sal, to the south by Santa Comba Dão, to the southwest by Mortágua and to the west by Águeda.
Amadeu Ferraz de Carvalho (1876-1851) describes the Municipality of Tondela geographically in these terms: "The Municipality of Tondela extends over the plateau, covers part of the eastern slope of Caramulo and, extending beyond the mountain range, still extends over the highlands of São João do Monte, on the slow slope of the upper contour of the Águeda basin, and thus the natural sections of its area are: the part of the plateau cut by the Dão and its tributaries Pavia and Dinha; the depressed region between the plateau and the Serra do Caramulo, drained by Criz and its tributaries; the caramulan part, with an eastern slope and the elevated western region in the contour of the Águeda basin ”; and adds“ an extreme basin, with quaternary deposits indicating small extinct lakes, bordering the mountain do Caramulo: it's Vale de Besteiros ”.
It is in this context that the Tondela region appears as one of the main focuses of archaeological remains, which allow us to situate the lives of prehistoric populations in different scenarios. It is through these traces that we will be able to try to understand the “modus vivendi” of the inhabitants, who have always been arousing the curiosity of researchers.
Walking through the Tondela Municipality, is truly to discover history in its most beautiful aspects, art, landscapes and people, because in each place there are marks of other times worth admiring: imposing manor houses with their beautiful stones. weapons, churches, chapels, bridges and water mills.
Of the architectural heritage with historical value in the Municipality, it is worth mentioning some housing developments worthy of note, both for their magnificence and dimension, as well as for the history associated with them and their owners. Of note are the pillories, which are representative marks of local history and of the Portuguese political tradition defined in the charters.