Praça da República (Braga)

Square in Braga

Braga Praca Da Republica — CC BY-SA 4.0 / Gerd Eichmann

Praça da República , popularly referred to as Arcada, is located in the parish of São José de São Lázaro , in the historic center of the city of Braga , in the district of the same name , in Portugal. It constitutes a square that opens up between the São Francisco and Barão de São Martinho squares and the Central and Liberdade avenues.

History of Praça da República

The square was opened at the end of the Middle Ages . The name Arcada is due to the existing arcade there, erected on the initiative of D. Rodrigo de Moura Teles in 1715 , in the same place as another, earlier one, which dates back to the time of D. Diogo de Sousa . It was here, since the end of the 16th century, that the foodstuffs that supplied the city were traded. Between 1761 and 1904 it was called Largo da Lapa and, between 1904 and 1910, Largo Hintze Ribeiro . Finally, with the implementation of the Portuguese Republic (1910), the square received its current designation.

The space was transformed into a public garden in the mid- nineteenth century , with the work on the current arcade building, designed by municipal engineer Joaquim Pereira da Cruz , being completed in 1885.

The most recent intervention in the space of the square took place between June 1994 and July 1995 , when surface traffic was removed and a light source was installed.

In the square are located the Church of Lapa and two emblematic cafés of the city, both already centenary, Café Vianna and Astória.

The Banco de Portugal building also belongs to the square , built in 1921 under a project by Moura Coutinho , in the place where the São Geraldo Theater used to be. Next to it was the headquarters of Banco do Minho, which ended in financial collapse at the end of 1939. It was demolished in the 1940s and the current building is occupied by Caixa Geral de Depósitos.

The Praça da República (Braga) appears in our Complete Guide to Visiting Braga!

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