Guarda () is a city and a municipality in the District of Guarda and the capital of the Beiras e Serra da Estrela sub-region in northern Portugal. The population in 2021 was 40,126, in an area of with 31,224 inhabitants in the city proper in 2006. Founded by King Sancho I in 1199, Guarda is the city located at the highest altitude in Portugal ( a.s.l.) and one of the most important cities in the Portuguese region of Beira Alta. Serra da Estrela, the highest mountain range in continental Portugal, is partially located in the district. The city is served by national and international trains on the Beira Alta and Baixa railway lines. The present mayor is Sérgio Costa, as an independent. The municipal holiday is November 27.

Guarda is known as the "city of the five F's": Farta, Forte, Fria, Fiel e Formosa - abundant (or totally satisfied), strong, cold, loyal and beautiful. The explanation of the five F's is as follows:

Farta (abundant), due to the fertility of the lands of the Mondego River valley; Forte (strong), because the castle tower, the walls and its geographical location demonstrate its strength; Fria (cold), due to its proximity to Serra da Estrela; Fiel (loyal), because the Captain General of the Castle Guard, Álvaro Gil Cabral, Pedro Álvares Cabral's great-great-grandfather, refused to hand over the keys to the city to the King of Castile during the Crisis of 1383-1385 and still had the strength to participate in the Battle of Aljubarrota; Formosa (beautiful), for the natural beauty of the urban nucleus.

Geography Guarda is the largest city in its district, capital of the Guarda District and the Beira Interior Norte Subregion within the Centro Region. The municipality is bordered by Pinhel to the north, to the east by Almeida, to the southeast by Sabugal, to the south by Belmonte and Covilhã, to the west by Manteigas and Gouveia, and to the northwest by Celorico da Beira.

Guarda is the highest city in continental Portugal (altitude 1,056 m), located to the northeast of Serra da Estrela (the largest mountain in mainland Portugal). The main attraction in Guarda is its cathedral, known as the Sé da Guarda. Guarda is a diocese of the same name.

Guarda railway station is served by the railway line Linha da Beira Alta, with international services towards Salamanca and Madrid, and domestic services to Pinhel, Vila Franca das Naves/Trancoso, Celorico da Beira, Gouveia, Nelas, Carregal do Sal, Santa Comba Dão, Mortagua, Luso/Buçaco and Pampilhosa. The station at Guarda has (2013) eighteen daily arrivals and departures of passenger trains and there is a small freight terminal. The section of the Linha da Beira Baixa which runs from Guarda through Belmonte/Sabugal, Covilhã, Fundão, Castelo Branco and Abrantes to Entroncamento is operating again, having been closed in 2010 between Guarda and Covilhã.

The main motorways are A25 (Aveiro, Viseu, Guarda, Vilar Formoso) and A23 (Guarda, Covilhã, Fundão, Castelo Branco, Abrantes, Torres Novas). Numerous motorcoach (long distance bus) services use these motorways to link Guarda with Porto, Lisbon and other Portuguese cities.

Guarda is the antipode to Puponga in New Zealand.

Climate Guarda has a cool Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csb) with some oceanic and continental influences. It has lower average temperatures than most climates of this subtype, in part due to its high altitude. Winters are cool and wet, and summers are warm and dry. Of the district capitals of Portugal, Guarda tends to experience the most snowfall, averaging about 12 days per year.

Climate

Toponym

For a long time historians believed that the civitas Igaeditanorum (Egitania) was located in Guarda, but more recently it has been established that this location was in Idanha-a-Velha, in Beira Baixa. It was from here that the gentile "egitanian", in relation to the natives of the city, took root. Bordering the lands of the igaeditani, north of Guarda, were the lands of the Lancians Oppidani whose capital, the civitas Lancia Oppidana, was referred to as being located a short distance from the current location of Guarda. This theory was fiercely defended by General João de Almeida (influential Portuguese military man, hero of the African campaigns, native of Guarda), which has led some critics to disparage it. However, all the following investigations indicate its veracity. The place name "Guarda" may have been a derivation of a fortress overlooking the Mondego River, the Castro Tintinolho, whose place was called "Ward" by the Visigoths.

History

Prehistory There is evidence of a meteorite impact in the region, northeast of Guarda, with about 35 km in diameter. Some pre-Ordovician evidence (from the Cambrian period, the earliest Phanerozoic epoch) is present.

From the Neolithic to the Christian Reconquest

In the first centuries of the Romanization of the Iberian Peninsula, Lusitanian tribes lived in the Guarda region. These tribes included, namely, the Igaeditani, the Lancienses Oppidani, and the Transcudani. These peoples, united under a true federation, resisted Romanization for two centuries. Unlike the Latinized towns, these towns did not consume wine, but instead, acorn beer. His weapon of choice was the falcata: a curved sword, which easily broke Roman swords due to its metallurgical superiority. Their pagan gods also differed from the Romans. Some Lusitanian religious inscriptions can still be found in some sanctuaries such as Cabeço de Fráguas. It is argued that the ancestral town of Castelos Velhos, from the Iron Age, was located in the current city of Guarda.

Although there are doubts about the place of birth, the Lusitanian warrior Viriathus (hero of Portuguese history to the present day) could have been born in the Guarda region in the "Herminios Mountains", corresponding to the current Serra da Estrela. Other historians suggest that he may have been born closer to the Portuguese coast. His death by murder by traitors paid by Caepio, Roman consul and military man who participated in the Lusitanian War, occurred in Cabeço de Fráguas, in the current municipality of Guarda, in 139 or 138 BC.

After Roman times, the period of occupation by the Visigoths followed. Later, the region was occupied by the Islamic civilization and by the Kingdom of Asturias. Only after the process of the Christian reconquest was its jurisdiction granted, which definitely confirmed the importance of the city and the region.

Burgundy dynasty

The city of Guarda was founded in 1199, in a location that was both difficult to reach and allowed as many as twenty leagues of the surrounding territory to be watched,Herculano, 2014, p. 48. and Sancho I of Portugal transferred the diocese of Egitania (modern day Idanha-a-Velha) to Guarda, while granting the city a charter that was based on the short charter of Salamanca. Situated high up, the city had a remarkable defensive and strategic importance. The Jewish quarter of the city, which already had some importance back in the 13th century among the communities of the kingdom of Portugal, was between 600 and 850 people in the 15th century, and hosted a significant number Jews expelled from Spain in 1492.

In 1202 the diocese of Guarda was created, transferred from Idanha, the ancient and important Egitanian Roman city, which was largely abandoned during the time of the invasions and wars against the Moors (Muslims), since, according to the legends, its situation on the border and its difficult location and defense exposed it to military attacks by Moors and Christians. The city of Guarda was founded in a place much easier to defend, which would allow it to be taken Idanha as the main post of Beira Interior.

The first Cathedral of Guarda was built in that same year, on the initiative of Bishop D. Martinho and with the support of King Sancho I. However, a few years later, it would be transferred to another place inside the city gates, between the years 1208 and 1214. Between 1390 and 1396 the current Cathedral of Guarda was built, at the initiative of Bishop D. Frei Vasco after the support granted by the king John I. The cathedral was later expanded between 1397 and 1426, between 1435 and 1458, and between 1504 and 1517.

King Denis and Queen Elizabeth were in the Guarda region after their marriage, held on February 11, 1281, at the Royal Palace of Barcelona. They were there between November 1281 and the end of July 1282, particularly in the town of Trancoso. The king signed the "Customs of Guarda" which consisted of letters from King Denis regarding the appeals of the residents of the villages and farms under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the bishop, on the income of 1,100 pounds that the county leased to Afonso, count of Boulogne, and also on the conflict that existed between the inhabitants of Vela and the inhabitants of Guarda (1311, 1315, 1321). There King Denis also prepared war with Castile, which would be resolved through the Treaty of Alcañices. In 1282, King Denis held the first Cortes de Guarda.

1383–1385 Portuguese interregnum and House of Aviz

In 1371, Denis granted in Guarda a "land of refuge" for the "humanized", who were the people convicted of murder, whom the king pardoned certain crimes or misdemeanors, with the aim that they would settle in the lands near borders. In 1383 a college for poor students was created in the city by Bishop Afonso Correia II, associated with the Episcopal school of Guarda, existing since (at least) the 13th century.

In 1465 King Afonso V made new Courts in Guarda, where the judges of the Civil Chamber were forbidden to disembark facts related to the city of Lisbon and whose resolutions were exclusive powers of the king. In 1475, Prince John (future King John II) led a Council in Guarda to gather the troops that would participate in the Battle of Toro, within the course of the War of the Castilian Succession. In the 1490s, when the expulsion of the Jews from Spain happened, Guarda received new inhabitants for its Jewish community, who would bring a new life to commerce in this border area. In 1493, the born and resident of Guarda, Rui de Pina, planned the Treaty of Tordesillas and set out on a diplomatic mission to Castile. In 1496 and 1497, during the reign of Manuel I, the conversion or expulsion of the Jews was ordered, which led to the appearance of the so-called New Christians (or Marranos), and as well as the expulsion of the moors, dand or place to the appearance of crypto-Judaism in the region. On October 22, 1536, the Inquisition began, and the persecution against Hindus (in Portuguese India), Muslims and Jews was launched. The persecutions were also launched in Guarda, particularly as of June 8, 1564, when authorization was given to D. Ambrosio Capelo, inquisitor of Guarda, to conduct the inquisition in the dioceses of Guarda and Lamego.

Portuguese succession crisis of 1580

In 1580, during the course of the dynastic crisis of 1580, the Bishop of Guarda, D. João, took sides for the independence of Portugal and opposed Philippine rule. The bishop then resisted the outcome of the Battle of Alcântara and continued to side with António, Prior of Crato, contrary to all the other Portuguese bishops. On March 18, 1582, the Pope condemned the "excesses" committed by D. João, bishop of Guarda, and he died in 1592 under the rule of Philip II of Spain (Philip I of Portugal).

Iberian Union On September 21, 1597, the synod was held in which new statutes or constitutions of the bishopric of the city began, in order to accommodate the decrees of the Council of Trent, in the context of the Counter-Reformation of the Catholic Church.

Braganza Dynasty