Arouca (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɐˈɾokɐ] ⓘ) is a town and a municipality in the Metropolitan Area of Porto, in the Norte Region of Portugal and in the Aveiro District.

[3] The territory that became Arouca was settled by vestiges of pre-historic tribes, but it was in the Roman occupation that the first artifacts associated with settlement first appeared.

[4] From archaeological excavations, it is known that the area was settled late in the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula (due to its distance from coastal and north–south accesses).

[4] From local toponomy, the permanence of Germanic tribes is evident; names such as Sá, Saril, Alvarenga, Burgo, Escariz, Friães and Melareses, are examples of this influence.

[clarification needed] The monastery was erected in the 10th century, in the invocation of Saint Peter, by two noblemen: Loderigo and Vandilo, from Moldes.

[4] In the first years of the 13th century, the monastery of Arouca passed into the hands of the Crown, and D. Sancho I left the complex in his testament to his daughter D.

[4] She was beatified in 1792 and her remains placed in an urn, executed in ebony, crystal, silver and bronze in one of the wings of the monastery's church (where her body was later moved in 1793).

[4] The Arouca is a fertile valley, almost entirely enclosed with a mountainous plateau, with only the western edge open to the rest of the country.