 Caldas da Rainha, a thermal city
Caldas da Rainha is known because of the presence of the older thermal hospital of the world.
With about 29 thousand inhabitants, this Portuguese city counts with a lot of traditions and history to be told.
In 1484, during a trip from Óbidos to Batalha, the queen D. Leonor, woman of the king D. João II, and their court, they went through a place where several people were having a bath in waters of intense smell.
The queen asked them why they were doing that, because on that time it was not normal the people to take bath, much less in waters with little pleasant smell.
The people answered that everybody was sick and that those waters had curative properties. Admired, the queen wanted to prove the truthfulness of the fact, so she took a bath in those waters. Some people believe that the queen had some disease. But nobody knows exactly why she was sick. Some say that she suffered of an ulcer in the chest; others believe that the queen had skin problems or, simply, a wound in the arm.
The truth is that the queen got well. In recognition of the case, in the following year, she ordered to build in that place a thermal hospital for all those that needed to be treated. In the place, the queen founded a small population with 30 residents, liberating them of taxes. Since then, the “Thermal Hospital queen Dona Leonor” was known as the oldest of the world.
But the attractions in the council of Caldas da Rainha are also the Square of the Republic, known popularly as Square of the Fruit ("Praça da Fruta"), where takes place everyday, in the morning, outdoors, the only daily market of vegetables and fruits of the country, unalterable from the end of the century XIX.
Other tourist points are the Church of “Nossa Senhora do Pópulo”, São Sebastião's small chapel, the fountain of the five waterspouts, the “Passo Real” and the ceramic factories.
In the neighbourhoods of the city it is possible to visit the churches of the Mercy and Parochial in Alvorninha, the Ermida São Jacinto, in Couto's place, and the “Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe” farm, in the Foz do Arelho.
The city of Caldas da Rainha is also known by the presence of several museums. Some examples are the museums José Malhoa, the great master of the portuguese painting work, municipal museums of the sculptors António Duarte, José Fragoso and Barata Feyo, besides the Museum of the Hospital and of Caldas. There is still space for the Museum of the Cyclism, the Museum of Ceramic and the Museum of the Bordalo Pinheiro factory. The Center of Exhibitions of the West, the Superior School of Arts and Design and the Catholic University are chapters of the modern history of the city.
Caldas da Rainha is also rich in gastronomy, with prominence for the bivalve ones, eels, robalo and linguado fishes of the lagoon, accompanied by the delicious white wines of the hillsides of Alvorninha.
The “Trouxas de Ovos”, the “cavacas”, the “lampreias” and the “beijinhos” are some of the candies that delight the visitors.
The council of Caldas da Rainha is composed by 16 “freguesias”:
A-dos-Francos
Alvorninha
Carvalhal Benfeito
Coto
Foz do Arelho (click on the link on your left side to see a video clip of the beach)
Landal
Nadadouro (click on the link to see a video clip of the featured property in Nadadouro)
Nossa Senhora do Pópulo (Caldas da Rainha)
Salir de Matos
Salir do Porto
Santa Catarina
Santo Onofre (Caldas da Rainha)
São Gregório
Serra do Bouro
Tornada
Vidais
Properties in Caldas da Rainha
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