Cid's Spain © Mark Wade

Town, in central Portugal on the Pavia. Center of a wooded agricultural area, the Old Town, with narrow alleys and old palaces emblazoned with stone coats of arms, is a modern tourist attraction.

Latitude: 40.67. Longitude: -7.89.

• Book I Chapter XIII:

  And proceeding with his conquests he laid siege to the city of Viseu, that he might take vengeance for the death of King Don Alfonso, his wife's father, who had been slain before that city.

• Book I Chapter XIII:

  But the people of Viseu, as they lived with this fear before their eyes, had fortified their city well, and stored it abundantly with all things needful, and moreover, they put their trust in their Alcayde, who was an African, by name Cid Alafum, a man tried in arms.

• Book I Chapter XIII:

  In this manner was Viseu recovered by the Christians, and never after did that city fall into the hands of the barbarians.

• Book I Chapter XIV:

  And because he was well beloved and his city well stored and strong, all the chief Moors in that district being dismayed by the fall of Viseu, retired into it, to be under his protection.

• Book I Chapter XIV:

  But maugre all their power, King Don Ferrando girt the city round about, and brought against it so many engines, and so many bastilles, that Zadan submitted, and opened his gates on the twenty-second of July, the day of St. Mary Magdalene, being twenty-five days after the capture of Viseu.