Cinfães

Municipality in Norte, Portugal

Flag

Coat of arms

Coordinates: 41°06′N 8°08′W / 41.100°N 8.133°W / 41.100; -8.133Country

PortugalRegionNorteIntermunic. comm.Tâmega e SousaDistrictViseuParishes14Government

• PresidentJosé Manuel Pinto (PS)Area

• Total239.29 km² (92.39 sq mi)Population

(2011)

• Total20,427 • Density85/km² (220/sq mi)Time zoneUTC±00:00 (WET) • Summer (DST)UTC+01:00 (WEST)Websitehttp://www.cm-cinfaes.pt

Cinfães (Portuguese pronunciation: [sĩˈfɐ̃jʃ] ^ⓘ) is a village and a municipality in the northern district of Viseu, Portugal. The village proper has about 3,300 inhabitants. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 20,427,^[1] in an area of 239.29 km².^[2]

Its history is linked to the first king of Portugal, Afonso Henriques and several noblemen of his entourage, like the server Egas Moniz. In Cinfães existed several fortified houses or towers like "Torre da Chã" destroyed during the first half of the 20th century.

It has an important heritage resource, especially the Romanesque churches such as St. Cristóvão de Nogueira; Santa Maria Maior de Tarouquela, Igreja do Escamarão, Ermida do Douro among many important others churches, specially dated to the Baroque period, like the one of São Pedro of Ferreiros de Tendais, and Santa Cristina of Tendais.

The present mayor is Armando Mourisco, elected by the Socialist Party. The municipal holiday is June 24 (st. John's day).

Parishes

Administratively, the municipality is divided into 14 civil parishes (freguesias):^[3]

Alhões, Bustelo, Gralheira e Ramires
Cinfães
Espadanedo
Ferreiros de Tendais
Fornelos
Moimenta
Nespereira
Oliveira do Douro
Santiago de Piães
São Cristóvão de Nogueira
Souselo
Tarouquela
Tendais
Travanca

Sanfins

Sanfins (also known as Sanfins da Beira) was a council within the municipality of Cinfães. It was given a foral in 1514 a status it kept until 1855. This area in the Douro region is now part of the Cinfães municipality.^[4]

Notable people

Alexandre de Serpa Pinto (1846 at the castle of Polchras in Tendais – 1900) Viscount of Serpa Pinto, a Portuguese explorer of southern Africa and a colonial administrator; Governor of Cape Verde, 1894/8.^[5]
Rui Cardoso (born 1994) a Portuguese footballer with over 100 club caps

References

^ Instituto Nacional de Estatística Archived November 15, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
^ "Áreas das freguesias, concelhos, distritos e país". Archived from the original on 2018-11-05. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
^ Diário da República. "Law nr. 11-A/2013, page 552 40" (PDF) (in Portuguese). Retrieved 21 July 2014.
^ "Paróquia de Santiago de Piães [Cinfães] - Arquivo Distrital de Viseu - DigitArq". digitarq.advis.arquivos.pt.
^ "Serpa Pinto, Alexandre Alberto de la Rocha" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 674–675.