Vila Nova de Gaia is a city and municipality in Portugal. It is in the Porto district, located south of Porto on the other side of the river Douro. The municipality has a population of 288,058 (2001 census) and 24 parishes. Together with Porto it is the center of the Porto Metropolitan Area.

It is also well known for its warehouses of Port wine.

There exists a project of the fusion of Porto with Vila Nova de Gaia, the new city is suggested to be called "Portogaia" with a population of 548000. The date for the referendum in the two municipalities is not set. It's a similiar process that already happened in Budapest.

Coat of Arms and Flag

The coat of arms are made up of a grey crest with two golden-yellow grapes on the bottom with a castle colored black in the middle with a person blowing the horn. The castle lies over the water. The castle is colored grey.

The flag is colored dark yellow to black in four each.

Parishes

Here are 24 parishes of Vila Nova de Gaia:

The largest parish is Mafamude and the smallest is Sermonde. The largest parish is Pedroso and the smallest is São Pedro da Afurada. The most densest is Mafamude and the least densest is Sandim.

View from the Douro river of Vila Nova de Gaia.

The economy are common in winery in the south bank of the Douro.

History of the Vila Nova de Gaia municipality

In June 30, 1989, Pedroso became a village

In July 12, 2004, Crestuma, Lever, Olival, Perosinho, Sandim, São Félix da Marinha and Serzedo became cities.