The building was built in order to serve for housing of the Dukes of Bragança and currently no longer part of the city walls, or is within any defensive structure.

The Palace of the Dukes of Braganza was built by King Afonso, 1st Duke of Braganza, a Burgundian style that reflects their architectural tastes acquired in the various trips he made in Europe.

The building has a central courtyard and has four towers, one in each of its four corners.

It was the four bodies which are contruidos around the central courtyard which the life of the palace was organized.

In the southwest body on the first floor, is the portal that serves as the entrance to the chapel, in the form of pointed archivolts, which are based on small columns.

As for coverage, its composition is wood travejamento.

The various windows, which are spread across four bodies of the Palace of the Dukes, have rectangular shape and are maineladas, with its chamfered edges.

The building is topped by a crown of battlements. The original design, the facade that is most conserved is the posterior fachado, while the remaining change much.

Inside the Palace, all the arcade is new, which makes it difficult to know-what would be your original.Não aspect is well known to those who attribute the authorship of the Dukes of Bragança Palace project.

In fact, there are documented references to the work of a master mason of French origin in the year 1460, his name Anton, who resided in the city of Guimarães.

However, there is nothing that can lead to state that this has been the author of Prince Afonso housing design.

Still, since the structure of the building is not similar to the Portuguese buildings of that time and since the person who commissioned its construction was Alfonso, the king’s illegitimate son John I of Portugal, and one of the richest Portuguese, educated and traveled this time, it is almost certain that the project has been conducted by a foreign author, probably French, as it is in France that we can find a similar buildings with this.

The Palace of the Dukes of Bragança was the initial house after the wedding with Alfonso D. Constance de Noronha, his second wife. The Palace continued to be inhabited by his descendants until, in 1576, dies Duarte, 5th Duke of Guimarães and grandson of King Manuel I.

Thus, it is from the late sixteenth century the Palace ends up abandoned and begins to degrade. Still, served as military headquarters during the nineteenth century, and only in the twentieth century came under restoration work and recreation, going to gain momentum as the official residence of the President of the Republic in the north.

Currently, the Dukes of Bragança Palace serves as Museum.

In a dominant position, overlooking the Campo(field)de São Mamede, this monument is connected to the Portuguese Province(Condado Portucalense) foundation and the struggles of independence of Portugal, being popularly referred to as the cradle of nationality.

A National Monument in 2007 was elected informally as one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal.

The castle features a plant in the approximate shape of a faceted shell. Its walls, reinforced by four towers, are torn by doors. A battlement, accessed by stairs in the towers, traverses the top of the walls, crowned by pentagonal battlements of sharp cut. On the west side, a wooden bridge connects between the battlement of the walls and the door of the keep. In the northern section of the walls are visible the ruins of the ancient fortress, probably of the fourteenth century, which is divided into two floors, with emphasis on their exterior windows and two chimneys.

The main gate to the west, is defended by two clods, with two others to defend the port of betrayal to the east.

The Tower of Homage, the center of the parade, has square plan, with few openings marking floors, internally connected by wooden staircase and stone. A broad and continuous adarve allow the movement and observation at the top of the tower, crowned by sharp pentagonal battlements.

The Largo da Oliveira is surrounded by a set of asset value of buildings, including: the Church Our Lady of Oliveira, the “porches houses” of the seventeenth century, the housing built built with traditional construction systems, and contains a Gothic porch with the Salado Default assigned. The Plaza de Santiago, surrounded by residential set of greatest artistic and environmental quality of the 17th and 18th centuries, is marked by the old building presence Town Hall, whose ground-floor consists of a porch supported by Gothic arches, element natural articulation between the Plaza de Santiago and Largo da Oliveira. The Rua de Santa Maria, one of the most ancient streets of medieval garb, connecting main axis between the core of the castle, located in the high quota and the core of the monastery, in the lower part of the village. The New Street or Egas Moniz Street, which features a built of very different eras, from medieval architectural elements to the architecture of centuries 17-19, with prominence the House of New Street medieval root, suffering modification works in the seventeenth century, is one of the most characteristic examples typological designated bounce houses.