Mumadona Dias (900? – 968?)
In her time, Countess Mumadona Dias was the richest and most powerful lady in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. She was the founder of Guimarães by ordering the construction of the Monastery in honour of Our Lady and of the Castle.
She was the daughter of the Counts Diogo Fernandes and Onega; wife of Count Hermenegildo Gonçalves (the son of the Counts Gonçalo and Teresa, founders of the Carvoeiro Monastery in Galicia) from whom she had six children: Gonçalo Mendes, Diogo Mendes, Ramiro Mendes (deacon), Onega Mendes, Nuno Mendes and Arias (or Ariano) Mendes.
After the death of her husband in 928, Countess Mumadona Dias shared the vast domains that the couple owned with her children. The lands of Guimarães remained with her daughter Onega who was a nun at the time. In 950, Mumadona founded the Monastery of Santa Maria where she professed and to which she would donate lands, cattle, cult ornaments, religious books and other sorts of income. It is known today that this Monastery had a remarkable library.
When her daughter Onega abandoned religious life, Mumadona Dias granted her other assets in exchange for the lands of Guimarães and thus became the absolute owner of them.
In order to assert her power and to protect the Monastery and the people from invading attacks of Normans who were regularly raiding the Portuguese coasts, she ordered the construction of a fortification. A castle was built in the upper part of Guimarães which led to the development of two population groups – the Vila de Cima or Vila do Castelo (uptown Guimarães) and the Vila de Baixo (downtown Guimarães):
“(…)laboravimus castellum quod vocitant sanetum mames in locum predictum alpe latito quod est super huius monasterio constructum et post defensaculo huius sancto cenobio concedimus cum fratribus et sororibus in ipso monasterio persistentibus…”.
The reference is clear and gives an account of the need to defend the newly built Monastery. The Castle, in turn, stood on the “predicted” location, that is, “alpe latito” or Latito Hill.