The fountain that is at the Jardim do Marquês already has a long history. It was placed here in 2006, after the construction work of the garden, but it literally lit up the Praça D. João I for decades.
The Praça D. João I was only inaugurated in the 40s and with a very modern aura thanks to very tall buildings on its side that are still there to this day. At the time of its construction, one of them was the tallest building in the country. This new square, which served as a connection between the Rua Passos Manuel and the Avenida dos Aliados, built in a place where other buildings once existed, would come to receive outstanding decorative elements: the bronze sculptures “Os Corcéis” (The horses), which are still there, and the fonte luminosa, which has since moved location to the Marquês, despite having lost some of its original elements.
The fountain was placed at the center of the square and, besides having the compass rose drawn on the bottom; it would also light up during the night. It was located in a small roundabout with Portuguese pavement and bushes. At the time, cars and buses would circle around the square, which was surrounded by coffee shops and other commercial establishments that are nowadays entrances to the car park. The imposing fountain was ordered by the owner of an important real estate agency.
São Gonçalo de Amarante was born around 1190, in the parish of S. Salvador de Tagilde, in the municipality of Vizela, in a noble family (the Pereiras). Under the protection of the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Braga, Gonçalo attended ecclesiastical disciplines at the Cathedral School of the Archiepiscopal See, becoming ordained priest and appointed parish priest of the parish of S. Paio (or S. Pelagius) of Riba-Vizela. He first went on pilgrimage to Rome from where he went to Jerusalem, where he took 14 years, leaving the parishioners in the care of a nephew priest. Returning to Portugal, he is chased away by the same that through a plot would have been named like parish priest. Resigned, he leaves S. Paio de Riba-Vizela, joins the conventual life of the Order of Preachers, recently founded by S. Domingos, building a small chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption, on the banks of the River Tâmega. where today stands the São Gonçalo Church and Convent in Amarante. The process of beatification was promulgated on September 16, 1561. Devotion to the most popular saint of the Portuguese saints, after Saint Anthony of Lisbon, spread throughout Portugal and Brazil. In 1540 John III of Portugal and D. Catarina of Austria decided to build a new Dominican temple and convent on the site, under the invocation of Gonçalo de Amarante. The works began in 1543, extending to the eighteenth century, with interventions in the twentieth century.
Amor de Perdição is a novel written by Camilo Castelo Branco, in 1862, which narrates the tragic story of young love. The tale, based on true facts, was written when Camilo was imprisoned and living a forbidden love himself.
Few remember this movie theater, built at the beginning of the 20th century and demolished in the late 1940s to give way to the current Rua de Ceuta. The Apolo Terrasse came at a time when the cinema was gaining popularity.
The origin of the pinwheels is not clearly indicated in history, but some historians believe that the first one was born in Persia during the year 915 BC. Others believe that in Iraq, Egypt or China there are indications of the use of even more remote windmills. However, it was not until the twelfth century that windmills were introduced to Europe.
This is an art not yet understood by many. With a negative history associated, where vandalism and the destruction of public spaces were the watchwords, people look suspiciously at the artists who perform these type of works.
