Viseu is both a city (capital of Viseu District) and a municipality in the Dão-Lafões Subregion of Centro Region, Portugal. The municipality, with an area of 507.1 km², has a population of 99,593 (2011), and the city proper has 47,250. The Greater Metropolitan Area of Viseu is also one of the Grandes Áreas Metropolitanas – Greater Metropolitan Areas of Portugal with 354,162 inhabitants.
Viseu has undergone a considerable economic growth, especially in the areas of telecommunications, industry, trade and education. Located in Portugal’s northern-center the city is a crossroads linking the seaport of Aveiro in the Atlantic coast to Guarda near the Portuguese-Spanish border and then on to Salamanca, Spain. Coimbra, the regional seat of Centro Region, is about 80 km southwest. The city is noted on the arts scene due to the Grão Vasco Museum and the Teatro Viriato. Wine making (Dao wines) is an important activity in the region.
The city name goes back to the end of the Roman Empire and the early Middle Ages where its name is derived from the Roman term “viso”, which means a good view. This was in accordance with the place where the original settlement was formed in Roman times, that was its highest point.
Viseu has a statue of Viriathus ( – 139 BC), the Lusitanians’ leader who fought the invading Romans for the freedom of Lusitania, made by the Spanish sculptor Mariano Benlliure (1862–1947). In 714 AD Viseu was taken by the Moors who held it for almost a century. The city’s fine Romanesque/Gothic cathedral dates from 830 AD. It was captured by Alfonso II of Asturias in 791 but was recaptured by Moors in 930. It was finally captured by Ferdinand I of León on expense of the Taifa of Batlabus in 1058.

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