Igreja Matriz de Santa Maria de Paredes

Really pretty

Simple but beautiful church, located right in the center of the village of Paredes de Couro (district of Viana do Castelo, Alto Minho), which stands out in all the panoramic images that you get from this beautiful village in Alto Minho.

In the list of churches in the territory of Entre Lima and Minho, drawn up on the occasion of the Inquiries of D. Afonso III in 1258, Santa Maria de Paredes de Coura is cited as one of the churches belonging to the bishopric of Tui. In this document, whose original is in the Torre do Tombo, it is called "Sancta Marina de Paredes". Figure in the catalog of the same churches that King Dinis organize in 1320 to determine the fee payable, calling itself "Sancte Marie walls." It was part of the archbishop's of Cerveira. In 1444, D. João I obtained from the Pope that this territory was dismembered from the bishopric of Tui, becoming part of that of Ceuta, where he remained until 1512. This year, the Archbishop of Braga, D. Diogo de Sousa, gave D Henry, bishop of Ceuta, the ecclesiastical region of Olivenza, receiving in exchange that of Valença do Minho. In 1513, Pope Leo X approved the exchange. In 1546, the Memorial Rui Fagundes made in D. Manuel de Sousa, appears framed in the Land of Coura. In the 1580 copy of the Census of D. Frei Baltasar Limpo on the canonical situation of these benefits, it is stated that the right of presentation of the unhealed half of this church was of the archbishop and the other, with healing, of lay people. According to Américo Costa, this church was the abbey of the presentation of the viscounts of Vila Nova de Cerveira. Administratively, there is noted that in 1755, this town belonged to the district of Viana do Castelo, in 1839à of Valencia, and in 1852, the Monsoon. In 1878, finally, it belonged to Paredes de Coura. It belongs to the Diocese of Viana do Castelo since November 3, 1977.