Viseu
Viseu | |
|---|---|
| City of Viseu | |
Clockwise: View of Viseu; historic center; Igreja da Misericórdia; Praça D. Duarte; Viseu Cathedral. | |
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Flag Coat of arms | |
Interactive map of Viseu | |
Viseu Location in Portugal Viseu Viseu (Europe) | |
| Coordinates: 40°40′N 7°55′W / 40.667°N 7.917°W | |
| Country | Portugal |
| Region | Centro |
| Intermunic. comm. | Viseu Dão Lafões |
| District | Viseu |
| Parishes | 25 |
| Government | |
| • President | João Azevedo (PS) |
| Area | |
• Total | 507.10 km2 (195.79 sq mi) |
| Population (2024) | |
• Total | 103,502 |
| • Density | 204.11/km2 (528.63/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+00:00 (WET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+01:00 (WEST) |
| Local holiday | September 21 |
| Website | www |
Viseu, officially the City of Viseu, is a city and municipality in the Central Region of Portugal and the capital of the district of the same name, with a population of 103,502 inhabitants in the entire municipality, and center of the Viseu Dão Lafões intermunicipal community, with 267,633 inhabitants.
Settled during the period of the early Iberian Castro culture, the territory of Viseu was occupied by a series of other peoples including the Romans, Suebians, Visigoths and Moors. During the Roman occupation of Iberia, Viriathus, the rebel leader of the Lusitanians, is assumed to have lived for a time in the vicinity. During the Middle Ages, the city often served as a seat for Visigothic nobles (such as King Roderic), and based in the Chronica Gothorum is one of several probable birthplaces for Afonso Henriques, first King of Portugal.
Viseu is a regional economic hub with a strong wine industry and is the seat of the international conglomerate Visabeira. The city is also a cultural center, home to the nationally acclaimed Grão Vasco Museum, the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Viseu, and a center for higher learning institutions, namely the Catholic University of Portugal and the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu.