For 30 years that Guimarães Jazz festival has been bringing to the city some of the best that the genre has to offer. Taking place at the end of the year, the festival has various homes spread throughout the “Cidade Berço” (“Birth City”). The standouts are the two auditoriums of the Centro Cultural Vila Flor, but there is also the Black Box of the Centro Internacional das Artes José de Guimarães, the Convívio Associação Cultural e Recreativa and also the café of the Centro Cultural.
The focus of the program are the concerts. They favour a format of communion between musicians and audience, trying to keep a balance and diversity of styles, geographies and generations. The lovers of jazz music also have an opportunity to participate in paralel activities like jam sessions and jazz workshops.
Aaron Parks Quartet | Buster Williams & Something More | Elliott Sharp | Jacob Sacks, Zack Lober, Vinnie Sperrazza, Chet Doxas, Suzan Veneman | Kathrine Windfeld Big Band featuring Gilad Hekselman and Immanuel Wilkins | Landline Plus One | Maya Homburger, Agustí Fernández, Barry Guy Trio | Michael Formanek Septet "New Digs" | Pedro Molina Quartet | Projeto Centro de Estudos de Jazz - Univ. Aveiro/Guimarães Jazz | Projeto Orquestra de Guimarães/Guimarães Jazz com Mário Costa | Projeto Orquestra de Jazz da Esmae/Guimarães Jazz | Projeto Porta-Jazz/Guimarães Jazz | Projeto Sonoscópia/Guimarães Jazz | Soma | Thad Jones 100 | Vanguard Jazz Orchestra... and many more
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Guimarães has a big historical value for the Portuguese people, as this city is symbolically considered "the birth place of Portugal". This is due to the fact that the battle of São Mamede took place in a field near the city, in 1128. This was the battle where army of Afonso Henriques (the first king of Portugal) defeated the Spanish army of Lady Teresa (his mother). After the battle, it was from Guimarães that started the development of the territory that is now Portugal.
Nowadays, the city has preserved its historical and cultural heritage, becoming a turist center worthy of a visit. The Historical Center of Guimarães was classified as World Heritage by UNESCO in 2001. This center concentrates on its streets various buildings in an excellent state that trace the history of the city of Guimarães.
√ Visit the castle, whose History is closely connected with the History of Portugal
√ Go for a walk in the Historical Center of Guimarães
√ Go through the Path of the Adarve of the Wall
√ Stray from the center and go to the Palace and Cultural Center Vila Flor
√ Proceed to Citânia de Briteiros, a collection of the remains of a proto-historical village
√ Take the cable car to Monte da Penha, where the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Penha is located, and take in the panormic view of the city
√ Go to the Centro de Artes Internacional José de Guimarães, where a retrospective of the work of this local artist is displayed
