Guimarães is a Portuguese city and capital of the Ave sub-region

It is the seat of the municipality of Guimarães which has a total area of ​​240.95 km2 , 156,830 inhabitants in 2021 and a population density of 651 inhabitants per km, subdivided into 48 parishes . The municipality is bordered to the north by the municipality of Póvoa de Lanhoso , to the east by Fafe , to the south by Felgueiras , Vizela and Santo Tirso , to the west by Vila Nova de Famalicão and to the northwest by Braga .
It is a historic city, with a crucial role in the formation of Portugal , and which has been around for over a millennium since its formation, when it was called Vimaranes . This place name may have originated in Vímara Peres , in the mid-9th century, when he made this place his main government center of the Portucalense county that he had conquered for the Kingdom of Asturias and where he died. [ citation needed ]
Guimarães is one of the most important historical cities in the country, with its historic centre having been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, making it one of the largest tourist centres in the region. Its streets and monuments breathe history and delight visitors.
Modern Guimarães has managed to reconcile, in the best possible way, history and the consequent preservation of heritage with the dynamism and entrepreneurship that characterise modern cities, which was manifested in the nomination as European Capital of Culture in 2012, factors that led Guimarães to be chosen by the New York Times as one of the 41 places to visit in 2011 and to consider it one of the emerging cultural hotspots of the Iberian Peninsula . It was also the European City of Sport (ECS) in 2013. In the latter, Guimarães was distinguished as being the best ECS of 2013.
Guimarães is often referred to as the " Cradle City " , due to the fact that the administrative centre of the County of Portugal was established there by D. Henrique and that his son D. Afonso Henriques may have been born in this city and fundamentally due to the historical importance that the Battle of São Mamede , fought on the outskirts of the city on 24 June 1128, had for the formation of the nationality. However, the needs of the Reconquista and of protecting the territories to the south took the centre of the monarchy to Coimbra in 1131, the same year in which the Monastery of Santa Cruz de Coimbra was founded .