Viana do Castelo

Vianna- is one of the best-documented Celtic hydronymic bases of the European Atlantic quadrant: it appears in the French river Vienne, the Austrian Vienna (Wien), the Navarrese Viana, several minor streams of inland Galicia. Contemporary peninsular onomastics classifies it within the Celtic Hispanic substrate, with the generic sense 'watercourse, river', prior to Romanisation. The river Lima, which flows out exactly at Viana, was identified by the Romans with the mythological Greek Lethe (the river of forgetfulness) —⁠the soldiers of consul Decimus Junius Brutus Galaicus refused to cross it in 138 BC for fear of losing memory. Brutus crossed alone, called from the other bank to each legionary by name, and the legion crossed. The byname do Castelo is modern: added by decree in 1848 by King Pedro V to distinguish the town from Viana do Alentejo. The castle of Santiago da Barra, a 16th-century Renaissance defence against pirate incursions, gave the second element. The city is among the principal urbs of northern Portugal: the historic centre with the Praça da República, the monumental basilica of Santa Luzia (20th century, Neo-Byzantine) on the hill that dominates the estuary, and the D.O. of vinhos verdes of the Lima sub-region.