late and other objects
of art. Among the other churches Santa Cruz is noteworthy for its
handsome facade, which dates from 1642. There are several convents, an
archiepiscopal palace, a library, containing many rare books and
manuscripts, an orphan asylum, and a large hospital; also the ruins of a
theatre, a temple and an aqueduct of Roman workmanship, and a great
variety of minor antiquities of different ages. The principal
manufactures are firearms, jewelry, cutlery, cloth and felt hats. Large
cattle fairs are held in June and September, for cattle-breeding and
dairy-farming are among the foremost local industries. On a hill about
3 m. E. by S. stands the celebrated sanctuary of Bom Jesus, or Bom Jesus
do Monte, visited at Whitsuntide by many thousands of pilgrims, who do
public penance as they ascend to the shrine; and about 1 m. beyond it is
Mount Sameiro (2535 ft.), crowned by a colossal statue of the Virgin
Mary, and commanding a magnificent view of the mountainous country which
culminates in the Serra do Gerez, on the north-east.
Braga is the Roman _Bracara Augusta_, capital of the _Callaici
Bracarii_, or _Bracarenses_, a tribe who occupied what is now Galicia
and northern Portugal. Early in the 5th century it was taken by the
Suevi; but about 485 it passed into the hands of the Visigothic
conquerors of Spain, whose renunciation of the Arian and Priscillianist
heresies, at two synods held here in the 6th century, marks the origin
of its ecclesiastical greatness. The archbishops of Braga retain the
title of primate of Portugal, and long claimed supremacy over the
Spanish church also; but their authority was never accepted throughout
Spain. From the Moors, who captured Braga early in the 8th century, the
city was retaken in 1040 by Ferdinand I., king of Castile and Leon; and
from 1093 to 1147 it was the residence of the Portuguese court.
The administrative district of Braga coincides with the central part of
the province of Entre Minho e Douro (q.v.). Pop. (1900) 357,159. Area,
1040 sq. m.
BRAGANZA (_Braganca_), the capital of an administrative district
formerly included in the province of Traz-os-Montes, Portugal; situated
in the north-eastern extremity of the kingdom, on a branch of the river
Sabor, 8 m. S. of the Spanish frontier. Pop. (1900) 5535. Braganza is an
episcopal city. It consists of a walled upper town, containing the
cathedral college and hospital, and of a lower or modern town. Large
trac
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