Praça Velha

Praça Velha became the town's urban core in the Late Middle Ages and was located in the royal land established by the early Portuguese kings after disputes with the Lords of Varzim.

[2] In the 16th century, single storey houses dominated the town's landscape, but there are indications of multiple floored habitations, with curved lintels and sculpted exterior facades.

[3] Due to its central location and position of safety, unlike the main church, the ordinary judge of the town, councilmen and people asked the archbishop of Braga in 1544 for "a license to place the Holy Sacrament in the sacrarium".

Their number was augmented from 1625 by priests from Laundos, Navais and Argivai, causing protests by Vila do Conde in 1637 concerning the growing importance that Póvoa was getting in the region.

[3] Those surrounding parishes were integrated by the civil administration into the Municipality of Póvoa de Varzim after the liberal reforms of 1836.

"[3] The area between the Madre Deus Chapel and the Town Hall, referred to as a "square of this town" in 1596, was the true civic center, coming close to the role that a square played in a medieval city, where a cathedral or church dominated, the market took place and where the most important buildings of the city were built.

[1] The building of the Town Hall supplied the square with arches that were used as protection from the sun or rain, in this way it was the hub of public life.

[1] Several streets reached the Praça, these linked the urban core with the suburbs and were used by travelers from neighboring cities and towns, such as Barcelos, Braga, Guimarães, and Vila do Conde.

With the Royal Provision, made by Queen Mary I in 1791, the Praça Nova (the "New Square") was created with a larger town hall.

[4] The importance of the Praça as the civic, economic and political center started to be broken down after the 1791 Royal Provision which restructured the urban arrangement of Póvoa de Varzim and relocated the municipal powers to the new square.