Hot springs and bolinhol in Vizela

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Vizela owes its fame to its hot springs. The Romans, who arrived in the Iberian Peninsula in the 3rd century BC, discovered the healing properties of its waters, which reach 65°C and are used to treat chronic rheumatism, respiratory problems and skin conditions, and people came from all over Iberia to bathe here. The Romans also left the old bridge, the Ponte Velha, classified as a national monument. After centuries of decline, the spa was reborn in 1785 with a thatched hut at Lameira, and the present thermal baths were built from 1870, with the Companhia dos Banhos de Vizela, founded in 1873, shaping much of the town's growth in the 19th and 20th centuries. Vizela first became a municipality in its own right in 1361, and on 10 July 1372 the Pact of Tagilde, a treaty of alliance between Portugal and England, was signed in the parish of Tagilde. Vizela became a town in 1929, and from 1964 the Movement for the Restoration of the Municipality of Vizela led a long campaign to win back its independence, including a boycott of local elections in 1982. The fight finally paid off in 1998, when the bills making Vizela a municipality were approved and it was raised to city status, and the council recalls more than six thousand people from Vizela celebrating outside the Assembly of the Republic. Beyond the spa, the council points to the views from the Sanctuary of São Bento das Pêras. The town's signature sweet is the bolinhol, a sponge cake brushed with a light sugar glaze, dating back to 1884 and growing in fame alongside the spa; in 2019 it won the national 7 Wonders of Portuguese Sweets competition.

The craft beer scene in Vizela is still waiting to be discovered, so look at nearby places for craft beer bars and breweries.