English

On the banks of the Rio Corgo, one of the tributaries of the Douro, the town of Vila Real rises up to about 450 feet high, in a region which shows evidence of having been inhabited since the Paleolithic. Traces of populations later, as the Shrine of Panóias Rupestre, safely denounce the presence of the Romans in the region, but the days that followed, during the invasion barbaric and especially Muslim, imposed a gradual depopulation that only ended with the approach of the century XII, with the assignment in 1096, the charter of Constantim Panóias by Conde D. Henrique.

In 1289, by charter of D. Dinis (the first given by the monarch to Vila Real) is founded on pobra of Vila Real de Panóias, which would become the city of today. The success of the village then founded attests to the growth in the number of residents: of around 480 people in 1530, Vila Real goes to about 3,600 in 1795. This growth due in large part to a privileged geographical location, between the coast and the interior, with links to Porto, Chaves, Bragança and land South.
In century XVII and XVIII Vila Real consolidates the epitome of “Corte de Trás-os-Montes,” which had benefited from the presence of the noble who have settled here because of the influence of House of the Marquis of Vila Real, still visible presence in many of stones – - arms attest that the titles of nobility of their owners.

As village more important in Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real acquired the status of the province capital, and already this century, in the decade of 20, had recognized its economic, demographic and administrative with two acts of great relief : the creation of the diocese on April 20, 1922 and lifting the city on July 20, 1925. Currently, Vila Real live a phase of increasing development at industrial, commercial and services, while enhancing the health, education, tourism, etc., presenting as a place of choice for foreign investment.