Guimarães, Portugal

Guimarães is a city in Guimarães Municipality, in the North of Portugal. In the 9th century, Vímara Peres was able to expel the Moors and founded a fortified town under his own name Vimaranis (of Vimar) which later became Guimaranis, present day Guimarães. The city is often referred to as the "birthplace of the Portuguese nationality" and also was the birthplace of Afonso I of Portugal, the first Portuguese king.

The seat of the municipality is Guimarães city, that is made of 16 parishes and, as of 2001, has a population of 52,181 inhabitants. The totality of the municipality has a population of 161,876 inhabitants in 241.3 km². Guimarães is ranked number 2 in the Portuguese most livable cities survey of living conditions published yearly by the Portuguese newspaper Expresso.