The establishment of Gouveia is often attributed to the year 580 BC, but the oldest material proof of human occupation is funerary pottery dating to the Bronze Age that was found in a castle square in 1940.

In the parish of Rio Torto, the oldest evidence of human occupation is a dolmen (a stone funerary structure) dating back to the fourth millennium BC.

A consecration inscription to the Lusitanian god Salqiu was found in a chapel on the city centre, as well as the grave of a Roman warrior with iron artefacts related to war (axe, knife, and an arrow head).

During the peninsular wars, Gouveia's castle was destroyed, but the medieval quarter survived, with its Jewish neighborhood of Biqueira, the S. Julian church, and urban characteristics.

The biggest icon is a 16th-century building called casa da torre, which has a "pelourinho" in front from the same period as the building itself to commemorate the autonomy attained by Gouveia from King Manuel I. Gouveia's location offers views over the Mondego valleys with the horizon dominated by the mountains and highlands of Beira Alta region.

With an area of 6 hectares, the park has flora and fauna distributed along its paths as well as support infrastructures and information for visitors about the environmental region that surrounds the city.

Administratively, the municipality is divided into 16 civil parishes (freguesias):[6] The municipality promotes an annual literary and painting award named after two of the greatest 20th-century Portuguese authors and artists as an homage to their home town: writer, philosopher, and teacher Vergílio Ferreira (born in Melo, Gouveia) and painter Abel Manta (also born in Gouveia).