It has been suggested not only that Franqueira derives its name from them, but that the arms of the Faria family, which include five fleurs-de-lys, are a heraldic link with the Royal arms of France dating from this time. In 1373, near Carapeços, north of Barcelos, a Castilian invading army led by Pedro Rodrgues Sarmento, Adiantado de Galicia, met and defeated a smaller Portuguese force under Dom Henrique Manoel, Count of Seia and an uncle of the King. In this action Nuno Gonçalvez, the Alcai de-Mor of the Castelo de Faria (Governor) was taken prisoner by the Spaniards. He had sortied to support the Count of Seia, leaving his castle lightly garrisoned under the command of his young son Gonçalo Nunes. Having captured him the Spaniards produced the Alcaide in chains under the walls of his great castle anticipating that Gonçalo Nunes would surrender after a parley, in order to save his father's life. But the old Alcaide shouted to his son on the walls a ringing and historic call to patriotism and duty, forbidding him to surrender a castle he held for the King. He was lanced under his son's eyes and a great Spanish assault mounted against the walls. But the boy and his heroic little garrison held it off; and the Spaniards, when they could no longer live off the surrounding country, were obliged to raise the siege and retire. Goncolo Nunes returned the castle he had so gloriously defended to the King, and became a pr:est. The incident is rightly famous in Portuguese history. The castle seems never to have been repaired from the damage it suffered in the siege and the assault. In the year 1429 Vicente and Caterina Afonso, a well-to-do couple from Oporto, chose religious poverty and isolation and found them by a spring which bubbled out of the mountain (and still does) in a natural amphitheatre lying below the ruins of the Castelo de Faria. More >>>> Pictures: [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7]