The historic centre of P\u00f3voa do Mileu, set on a small platform over the River Diz, includes important remains of buildings from the Roman period, the Romanesque chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Mileu and the small cemetery next to it, as well as a rural dwelling. A common feature of all these structures is the chapel’s very spacious churchyard, which for centuries has been occupied on feast days by generations and generations of pilgrims and devotees of the patron saint.Head up to the town and stop off at Pra\u00e7a Velha. Or Pra\u00e7a Lu\u00eds de Cam\u00f5es.Still in Pra\u00e7a Lu\u00eds de Cam\u00f5es, between the ecclesiastical city and the labouring city, Pra\u00e7a Lu\u00eds de Cam\u00f5es – the old Pra\u00e7a Velha – has long been the most central and crowded public space, concentrating, for centuries, the presence of religious power, the Cathedral, and civil power, the building of the old Pa\u00e7os do Concelho, dating from 1570, with administrative, political and judicial functions.Surrounding these imposing buildings are noble houses belonging to wealthy families, such as the Solar dos P\u00f3voas, where the Guarda Tourist Office is located, as well as the 17th-century architectural complex known as the Balc\u00f5es Building.With the transfer of the seat of the Bishopric from Idanha-a-Velha to Guarda in 1203, under the influence of King Sancho I, it was necessary to promote the construction of a Cathedral. Nothing is known of the original building, and construction of the current cathedral began in 1390, but given the scale of the project, the work dragged on and the building was only finished in the Manueline context, at the beginning of the 16th century.The cathedral, orientated east-west according to the traditional pattern, has its main fa\u00e7ade naturally facing west. It is flanked by two heavily reinforced octagonal towers. The portal, typically Manueline in style – like the whole of this fa\u00e7ade – is topped by a niche that has housed the image of Our Lady of the Assumption, patron saint of the city of Guarda, since the 16th century.However, the most used entrance is the one overlooking Pra\u00e7a Lu\u00eds de Cam\u00f5es, on the north fa\u00e7ade. On this fa\u00e7ade, the most emblematic in the city, which gives it a unique iconic value, opens a typical Gothic portal topped by a Manueline-style window, making it one of the most beautiful architectural complexes of the 15th and early 16th centuries. The interior of the cathedral, of great compositional clarity, is Gothic in design, with a central nave and two side naves, articulated with a very well-developed transept and a very purely designed chevet, the oldest part of the architectural complex and, as such, the closest to what would have been the initial design of the Guarda cathedral, linked to the precepts of the purest and most elegant Gothic.The monumental altarpiece of the chancel altar, carved from An\u00e7\u00e3 stone and attributed to the school of Jo\u00e3o de Ru\u00e3o, is noteworthy. This altarpiece depicts episodes from the Life of Christ, beginning with the Birth and ending with the Passion.In the side naves, two particular chapels are worth mentioning: the Capela dos Ferros and the Capela dos Pinas. The latter, with its Renaissance portal, contains the lying statue of Jo\u00e3o de Pina, nephew of the famous royal chronicler and Guard-Major of the Torre do Tombo Rui de Pina.From Pra\u00e7a Velha, go around the Cathedral to the left: turn into Largo Dr Am\u00e2ndio Pa\u00fal and take the narrow street that leads to Solar Teles de Vasconcelos, whose name can be seen on the fa\u00e7ade; the coat of arms is on one of the three bodies of the building.Next to the manor house is the Beira Interior Regional Wine Commission (CVRBI). It was set up on 17 August and began work on 14 February 1994. Its mission is to certify, control and promote wine products with the right to domination of origin and to increase the reputation and visibility of Beira Interior wines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"categoria_ponto_interesse":[381],"duracao":[],"estacao_do_ano":[],"grupo_de_viagem":[],"tipo_de_experiencia":[],"class_list":["post-19987","ponto_de_interesse","type-ponto_de_interesse","status-publish","hentry","categoria_ponto_interesse-roteiros-turisticos-en-2"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n