Vila Nova de Gaia, or simply Gaia, (pron. IPA: ['vilɐ 'nɔvɐ dɨ 'gaiɐ]) is a city in Portugal. It is located in the Porto district, south of the city of Porto on the other side of the river Douro. The city has a population of 300,868 (2006) and contains 24 parishes, being the most populated municipality in Norte region. Gaia together with Porto and other 12 municipalities makes up the commonly designated Porto Metropolitan Area.

It is also well known for its "lodges" (locally known as "caves") where the world famous Port wine is stored and aged. The lodges have become a major tourist attraction.

1 Coat of Arms and Flag
2 History of the municipality
3 Parishes
4 Gallery
5 External links

[edit] Coat of Arms and Flag

The coat of arms are made up of a grey crest with two golden-yellow bunches of grapes on the bottom with a black castle over the water, and with a person blowing the horn.

The flag is colored dark yellow to black in four each.

[edit] History of the municipality

Vila Nova de Gaia already existed under the Roman Empire as the city of Cale. It developed most likely from a preexistent Celtic Castro, or neolithic settlement. The origin of the name Cale (or Gale, since in Classical Latin there was no clear distinction between the letters and sounds "g" or "c") is likely Celtic, from the root "Gall-" with which Celts referred to themselves, similarly to Galicia, Gaul or Galway. The river itself has a presumably Celtic name, Douro (Durus in Latin) maybe after Celtic "dwr", water.^{[citation needed]} In Roman times the bulk of the population probably lived south of the river Douro, and on the north side, there was a smaller settlement around the deep water port which now is the Ribeira neighbourhood of Porto. The name of Porto, in high medieval times Portus Cale, thus stood for the harbour ("portus" in Latin) of the city of Cale. With the important trade of the river Douro, which is easily navigable up to the Régua deep inland, the Porto part of the city came to overgrow Cale, and became the most important part of town, where the Bisphoric and the merchants were established.

With the moorish invasions in the eighth century A.D., the de facto frontier between the Islamic state and the Christian one came to rest for a considerable period of time on the river Douro, around the year 1000. With the constant raids and counter-raids, the town of Cale, or Gaia, was deserted and most of its inhabitants took refuge in Porto.

After the conquest and pacification of the southern side of the Douro river after 1035, with the exodus or expulsion of the Muslim populations, leaving behind semi-abandoned fertile lands, colonists from the north settled in exchange for better feudal contracts with the newly appointed lords. These migrants refounded the old city of Cale or Gaia under the name of Vila Nova de Gaia (new town of Gaia) around the old castle and ruins of "old Gaia".

The name of the double city of Oporto and Gaia was frequently referred to in contemporary documents as "villa de Portucale", and the county of the Kingdom of Leon which was centered around it was named Portucalense. This county was eventually expanded and after gaining its independence, became the Kingdom of Portugal.

In June 30, 1989, Pedroso became a village On July 12, 2004, Crestuma, Lever, Olival, Perosinho, Sandim, São Félix da Marinha and Serzedo became villages too.

Image:Panar2contr-hs.jpg

[edit] Parishes

Image:Vila Nova de Gaia seen from Porto.jpg

Image:Apartment buildings of Mafamude, Vila Nova de Gaia.jpg

There are 24 parishes (freguesias) in Vila Nova de Gaia:

Parish	Population	Area	Density
Arcozelo	12,393	7.82 km²	1,548.8.km²
Avintes	11,523	9.38 km²	1,228.5/km²
Canelas	12,303	7.47 km²	1,647/km²
Canidelo	23,737	8.05 km²	2,948.7/km²
Crestuma	2,962	4.93/km²	600.8/km²
Grijó	10,267	11.46 km²	895.9/km²
Gulpilhares	9,707	6.14 km²	1,580.9/km²
Lever	3,033	6.88 km²	440.8/kmª
Madalena	9,356	6.02 km²	1,554.2/km²
Mafamude (Vila Nova de Gaia)	38,940	5.39 km²	7,224.5/km²
Olival	5,616	7.96 km²	705.5/kmª
Oliveira do Douro	23,384	6.72 km²	3,479.8/km²
Pedroso	18,449	19.65 km²	938.9/km²
Perosinho	5,950	4.71 km²	1,263.3/km²
Sandim	6,326	15.97 km²	396.1/km²
São Félix da Marinha	11,171	9 km²	1,241.2/km²
São Pedro da Afurada (Vila Nova de Gaia)	3,442	1 kmª	3,442/km²
Seixezelo	1,729	1.61 km²	1,073.9/km²
Sermonde	1,225	1.41 km²	868.8/km²
Serzedo	7,547	7,62 km²	990.4/km²
Valadares	9,095	4.94 km²	1,841/km²
Vila Nova de Gaia (Santa Marinha)	30,758	6 km²	5,126.3/km²
Vilar de Andorinho	16,710	6,52 km²	2,562.9//km²
Vilar do Paraíso	13,126	4.17 km²	3,147.7/km²

The most populous is Mafamude and the least is Sermonde, while the largest by area is Pedroso and the smallest is São Pedro da Afurada. In terms of populational density, the most dense is Mafamude and the least dense is Sandim.

Parishes of Vila Nova de Gaia municipality	Image:VNG1.png
Arcozelo \| Avintes \| Canelas \| Canidelo \| Crestuma \| Grijó \| Gulpilhares \| Lever \| Madalena \| Mafamude \| Olival \| Oliveira do Douro \| Pedroso \| Perosinho \| Sandim São Félix da Marinha \| São Pedro da Afurada \| Seixezelo \| Sermonde \| Serzedo \| Valadares \| Vila Nova de Gaia \| Vilar de Andorinho \| Vilar do Paraíso

[edit] Gallery

Vila Nova de Gaia city

[edit] External links

Parishes of Vila Nova de Gaia municipality	Image:VNG1.png
Arcozelo \| Avintes \| Canelas \| Canidelo \| Crestuma \| Grijó \| Gulpilhares \| Lever \| Madalena \| Mafamude \| Olival \| Oliveira do Douro \| Pedroso \| Perosinho \| Sandim São Félix da Marinha \| São Pedro da Afurada \| Seixezelo \| Sermonde \| Serzedo \| Valadares \| Vila Nova de Gaia \| Vilar de Andorinho \| Vilar do Paraíso

Municipalities of the District of Porto	Image:Flag of Portugal.svg
Amarante \| Baião \| Felgueiras \| Gondomar \| Lousada \| Maia \| Marco de Canaveses \| Matosinhos \| Paços de Ferreira Paredes \| Penafiel \| Porto \| Póvoa de Varzim \| Santo Tirso \| Trofa \| Valongo \| Vila do Conde \| Vila Nova de Gaia