page_title: Largo das Dores
section_title: Old town decline in the 18th century
hierarchical_section_title: Largo das Dores / History / Old town decline in the 18th century
caption_attribution_description: English: View of Dores Square as seen from a nearby farmfield with the Main Church of Póvoa de Varzim (1100s-1910 AD) and Senhora das Dores Church (rebuilt 18th cent.)
context_page_description: Largo das Dores or Dores Square is a square in Póvoa de Varzim city center in Portugal. Part of the earliest old town of Póvoa de Varzim, this area is listed by City Hall as heritage site. With about 11.000 square meters, its most noticeable features are its two churches, located in the sites of ancient chapels, one of which was the main church of the city.
context_section_description: In the 18th century, Póvoa was expanding, and Santa Maria de Varzim Church proved to be too small for such a large and growing community and was not in the civic center of the time. A new main church was blessed in 1757 in Praça Velha. The church became known as Misericordia Church, due to a devotee from the old town, Maria Fernandes, widow of Manuel Francisco Maio, that left all her wealth to create, in the old first church, the Misericórdia Brotherhood in 1756, reuniting with it, the Passos Brotherhood, that already existed in the temple, by this deed the Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Póvoa de Varzim was created. The old town's population loss was such that, by the mid-18th century, there were only four houses surrounded by farmed fields.
  Senhora das Dores Church, from where the square's name derives, in found in front of the old main church, in a small hill where previously the Senhor do Monte (Lord of the Hill) was venerated in another ancient small chapel. The change in invocation occurred on July 24, 1768, when the archbishop authorized the placement of a Senhora das Dores icon in the chapel to a group of devotee Latin Grammar students, they were helped by some residents. From then on, the temple was significantly changed for a long period ending in the 19th century when the six chapels were built.
  On June 8, 1784 a curious procession is registered in Dores Square in which the icon of Senhora das Dores is taken to Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo Crucificado in the Misericórdia Church, that by Senhora das Dores intervention, the rain may fall for the lands to be productive. Misericórdia Church, was demolished in 1910 because it was almost in ruins, the lack of architectural grandeur and the expansion of the new beach district's Mouzinho de Albuquerque Avenue. Near the old church, the new Misericórdia Church started being built one year prior to the demolition. Stones with historical or artistic value, such as the Gothic-Romanesque door and signed stones where carefully saved and stored in the City's museum.
caption: Largo das Dores as seen from nearby farmfields.
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