In Portugal, the city is not an
administrative division, therefore a city generally does not necessarily correspond to a
municipality, which is the second-level local government in the country. Some entirely urban municipalities do coincide with cities, such as
Lisbon,
Porto,
Funchal,
Amadora,
Entroncamento, and
São João da Madeira. Conversely, a municipality can contain multiple cities; the municipality of
Paredes contains four cities, the most of any municipality in the country. Until 1910, a locality was proclaimed a city by
royal charter (), which happened 25 times to current Portuguese cities (royal charters were also granted to cities of the
Portuguese Empire; for example,
São Paulo in 1711). During the
Portuguese First Republic, the process was transferred to the parliament, which elevated three towns to the category of city. The dictatorial regime proclaimed seven cities on the Portuguese mainland (as well as some more in the colonies), this time by government decree. After the 1974
Carnation Revolution, proclamation of cities returned to parliament, and 159 localities in the country are considered a city . The designation of eight settlements as cities predates the formation of the
Kingdom of Portugal in the 12th century:
Braga,
Coimbra,
Lamego,
Porto and
Viseu, as well as
Évora,
Lisbon and
Silves, which were
annexed to the kingdom in the century after its founding.
Guarda was the first city proclaimed as part of the independent kingdom, in 1199. == City designation ==