Paço dos Duques de Bragança

Called Paço do Duque de Bragança, honoring the memory of D. Afonso, illegitimate son of D. João I, who married Dª. Brites, daughter of Constable D. Nuno Alvares Pereira, chose, after marriage, the then village of Chaves to take up residence. D. Afonso ordered his palace to be built near the castle, the construction of which started in 1410 and completed in 1446. It was not a residence worthy of a nobleman, but rather a small hostel, although no original plan or design is known for this original construction knowing that the counts felt good because their three children were born on this land.

There are more certainties regarding the building's more recent history. It is known that in 1739 the Governor of Arms of the Province of Trás-os-Montes, General Francisco da Veiga Cabral, ordered the construction of the building whose facade faces the current Praça de Camões. The purpose of its construction seems to have been to install the headquarters of the Main Guard and the military prison there. It is in these military functions that the building, the result of the combination of different buildings of different dates, with additions and transformations, possibly surpassing the remains of the old ducal palace, will reach its monumental size, with a wide gate, surmounted by laborious and artistic royal weapons. in stone. It already had one more floor, when the barracks of an infantry regiment operated there, later considered useless and unsightly.

Source: https://www.chaves.pt/