Church of São Miguel do Castelo

The Church of São Miguel do Castelo is a medieval church in the civil parish of Oliveira do Castelo, municipality of Guimarães, in the northern district of Braga of Portugal. The church is emblematically linked to the foundation of the Portuguese Kingdom; legend suggests that it was the sight of the baptism of the young Afonso Henriques. These claims are contradictory, since the date of the church's founding has been suggested to be during the reign of Afonso II of Portugal.HistoryIt was constructed within the circle of the Castle of Guimarães, which it intimately shares a relationship. A few authors defend that it was the church where Afonso Henriques was baptized, dating its probable construction to the 9th or 10th century, during the era of Countess Mumadona Dias, exhaulting the ancestry of the Church and perpetuating the legend. This current of nationalist histography, which ideologically supported a Romantic revisionism dates to the 19th century and continues to this day (as evidenced from the plaque erected on the site). Yet, this interpretation contradicts that date of its consecration and first reference by the Church, which only occurred in the 13th century, in conditions particularly difficult for these early ancestors. The church was first referenced in 1216, in a document to the collegiate of canons in Guimarães. Its construction occurred even as this group of clergy were quarrelling with the powerful Archbishop of Braga, which later led to armed confrontation. The building of the Church was justified by the need of a temple in Guimarães, a decision which escaped the Archbishop at the time. It was later consecrated by the Archbishop of Braga occurred in 1239, and referred as a suffrage of Santa Maria de Nossa Senhora da Oliveira in 1258.