A cidade is a city in Portugal. It does not necessarily correspond to a concelho (municipality), since cidade is a purely honorifical term, which lost importance with the proliferation since the 1980's (to the extent that Sintra has consistently refused the promotion from vila to city, despite being one of largest urban areas in the country). There are 141 cities in Portugal.
Eight cities have been always considered cities since Portugal became an independent kingdom (although some of them didn't become part of Portugal until later): Braga, Coimbra, Évora, Lamego, Lisbon, Porto, Silves, and Viseu.
Until 1910, a city was proclaimed by royal charter, which happened 25 times. During the First Portuguese Republic (1910-1926), three cities were proclaimed by Parliament. The Estado Novo proclaimed seven cities by government decree, but after the Carnation revolution, proclamation of cities returned to Parliament, which had been plentifully done.
List
Alphabetically, the 141 cities (with the dates when they were declared cities, if before 1996) are:
