Maia Municipality

Maia Municipality () is located in the Porto Metropolitan Area, Grande Porto subregion, in Norte Region, Portugal. The city of Maia includes the parishes of Gueifães, Maia and Vermoim, and has 35,625 inhabitants. The Maia Municipality comprises 120,744 inhabitants in 17 parishes for a total land area of 83.70 km². Maia parish proper, has a population of 9,816. There are also 3 towns in the municipality: Moreira, Castêlo da Maia and Águas Santas. The last one has 25,249 people in conurbation with the municipality of Porto.

History

The area of the current municipality (concelho) is inhabited since millennia ago. The human occupation dates from the Paleolithic. In many hills of the region, there were found remains of villages from the Iron Age. Attracted by rich soil and abundance of resources, the Romans also left out visible marks of their occupation. In the middle of the thirteenth century, the Lands of Maia (Terras da Maia) extended from the city of Porto until the Ave river and from the sea to the mountains. In 1304, however, the Lands of Maia were incorporated into those of Porto, losing its political and administrative autonomy. In 1360, King Pedro I of Portugal gave the landlord of Azurara (in current Vila do Conde), with Lands of Maia, to the infant D. Dinis, his son. The history of this municipality is also closely linked to the...
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