The historical remains on the origin of the settlement of this land, takes us to the
Iron Age, more properly to archaeological remains of
hillforts throughout the county.
Castro do Monte das Ermidas, perhaps founded in the 4th century BC,
Castro de São Miguel-o-Anjo or
Castro de Eiras, are some of the archaeological remains of remote settlements that the county has. The
Pedra Formosa do Castro de Eiras, which belonged to a bathing complex, was discovered in 1880 and, according to archaeologists, it dates from the first millennium BC.
The 1205's foral D. Sancho I was forever remembered as the settler, king who sponsored the creation of settlements throughout the country, with a view to making Portugal a strong and dispersed kingdom, thus populating remote areas of the kingdom. On 1 July 1205 King D. Sancho I of Portugal, who had a
reguengo (land that belonged to the King) in
Vila Nova, created a
foral to 40 inhabitants of that land, giving authorization for them to deal with his reguengo, on which all the profits that the 40 settlers obtained in that piece of land would be perpetually theirs, by hereditary right, and could sell to whomever they wanted. Thus, the history of the village began from that moment. In that same foral, the king orders the village to hold a biweekly fair, a tradition that still happens weekly.
The Municipality Vila de Famalicão, as the head of the Judge of Vermoim, began to appreciate over the years, and so much so that in 1706 it counted 100 natural inhabitants of the land. Showing his yearnings for better progress, in 1734 and 1735, he insisted with Barcelos, asking for benefits, as to signifying the care of new progressive intentions. Continuing to boil interest in local development. In 1825, he decidedly asked Vila de Barcelos to create his own municipality, which he was unable to obtain. Finally, ten years later and with the creation of the new
Judicial Division of the Kingdom of Portugal on 21 March 1835, the municipality of Vila Nova de Famalicão was formed by the order of Queen
D. Maria II. == Geography ==