PÓVOA DE VARZIM
GPS: N 41.37983; W 8.75918
The city of Póvoa de Varzim has been a renowned bathing city for three centuries, the most popular in the North of Portugal, which established an influential literary culture and sponsorship in music and theater. It is one of the few areas of legal gambling in Portugal and has significant textile and food industries.
The climate is classified as the Mediterranean softened by ocean breezes, with mild summers and mild winters. Average temperatures range between 12.5 and 15 degrees. The city has a microclimate and is considered the least frost-prone region in the whole of northern Portugal, with extremely rare snowfalls, due to the winter winds that normally blow from the south and southwest.
The rains are mainly concentrated in winter. North winds usually rise in the summer afternoon and are called Nortadas. Sporadically, during the dry summer, a mass of hot and humid air, brought by the sea winds from the south and west, creates the characteristic fog of the city, which covers only the coast, dissipating normally with the afternoon sun.
Of the various religious buildings, the 18th-century Baroque churches stand out: the Mother Church, the Church of Nossa Senhora das Dores, with six attached chapels, and the fishing church of Lapa with its curious lighthouse. On the other hand, the Igreja da Misericórdia and the Basilica Coração de Jesus show a taste for the neoclassical in more recent times.
Póvoa de Varzim has 12 uninterrupted kilometers of golden sand beaches, forming inlets divided by rocks, famous for being water-rich in iodine. Most of the city's beaches are family oriented such as Redonda, Salgueira, and Lagoa and during the summer period, they can receive crowds, while those further away from the heart of the city, such as Santo André, Salgueira and Aguçadoura are beaches of surfing, while Verde and Quião are meeting beaches. Located near the Rio Alto campsite, the Rio Alto beach is often chosen by naturists due to the difficult access and privacy offered by the dunes.
Parque da Cidade, designed by Sidónio Pardal, is an urban park with almost 90 hectares, currently only the east part with thirty hectares can receive visitors. Although it looks natural, the park includes man-made hills, islands, and lakes and extends from the A28 motorway to the Pedreira lagoon.
Monte de São Félix, with panoramic views over the city and the surrounding rural green, is a religious hill with 15 churches that represent Via Crúcis and a staircase landscaped by the hillside. It has traditional windmills, some converted into tourist residences, a sanctuary to São Félix, an inn, and a monument to emigrants.
The green ring of Póvoa de Varzim is made up of the parishes of Balazar, Estela, Laundos, Rates and the old parishes Aguçadoura, Amorim, Beiriz, Navais and Terroso. In these parishes, besides the main villages, there are small villages, namely: Além, Fontainhas, Gandra, Gestrins, Gresufes, Passô, Sejães and Teso.
Póvoa de Varzim has a diversified economy, whose backbone is based on tourism (namely gambling, hotels, and restaurants) and the food sector (with emphasis on milk production, horticulture, and fisheries).
Póvoa de Varzim is served by a transport network that uses sea, land, and air routes. The terrestrial access infrastructure consists of motorways, the national road system, and the light rail network.
Located just 18 km from the city center, the Sá Carneiro International Airport (OPO) is one of the main international airports in the country. The Póvoa de Varzim Aerodrome, made official as S. Miguel de Laundos, is a 270-meter long runway for ultralight and other small planes.
Line B of the Metro do Porto connects Póvoa de Varzim to the city of Porto and the airport in two types of services, normal and "express".
The city is connected by road on a North-South axis from Valença to Porto by the A28 motorway. The A7 and A11 motorways cross the A28 and on an east-west axis, through the south and north of the city, in that order, connecting the city to Guimarães and Braga.
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