Caldas da Rainha, Oeste Region, Centro Region, Portugal

Commerce | Statistics

🇵🇹 Caldas da Rainha is a medium-sized city in the Oeste region, and the district of Leiria of Portugal. The city serves as the seat of the larger municipality of the same name and of the Comunidade Intermunicipal do Oeste. Although the city itself lies about 10.5 km inland, three of the municipality's civil parishes lie on the Atlantic Ocean. Caldas da Rainha is best known for its sulphurous hot springs and ceramic pottery.

The settlement was founded in the 15th century by Queen Leonor (Rainha Dona Leonor), who established a hospital and a church at the site of some therapeutic hot springs. The Hospital Termal Rainha D. Leonor (Queen Leonor Spring Water Hospital, or Thermal Hospital) is the oldest purpose-built institution of its kind in the world, with five centuries of history. The city's name, often shortened to simply "Caldas", can be translated as "Queen's Hot Springs", "Queen's Spa", or "Queen's Baths".

Caldas da Rainha is a UNESCO Creative City. It is home to many cultural institutions. The city's nine museums cover art, history, and cycling. Cultural and sports venues include Centro Cultural e de Congressos (CCC, Cultural and Conference Centre), a centre for performing arts, exhibitions, and conferences; Expoeste – Centro de Exposições do Oeste (Exhibition Centre of the West), which hosts exhibitions and festivals; a bullring; several football (soccer) pitches; and a multi-sport municipal complex. Caldas hosts six professional and higher-educational institutions, including a major arts and design school and a school devoted to ceramics. In 2014 Caldas da Rainha had the best public secondary school in Portugal based on national test scores.

Commerce Caldas da Rainha has about 600 commercial establishments and calls itself Capital do Comércio Tradicional (capital of traditional commerce). The city's downtown/city centre (centro) shopping area contains shops specialising in clothing, jewellery, beauty supplies, decoration, housewares, and other goods. The main shopping streets include Rua dos Heróis da Grande Guerra, Rua Almirante Cândido dos Reis (popularly known as Rua das Montras, Street of Storefronts), Rua Doutor Miguel Bombarda, Rua da Liberdade, and surrounding streets. Praça da Republica (Republic Square), popularly known as Praça da Fruta (Fruit Square), hosts an outdoor farmers' market every morning. A weekly market selling cheap clothing and domestic items is held on Mondays uphill from the square. Several small indoor shopping centres, most with only a few shops, exist throughout the city. The Associação Comercial dos Concelhos das Caldas da Rainha e Óbidos (ACCCRO, Commercial Association of the Municipalities of Caldas da Rainha and Óbidos), founded in 1902, promotes and supports commercial and service businesses in Caldas da Rainha and neighboring Óbidos.

Several international chains have locations in Caldas da Rainha, including Benetton, Bershka, Claire's, Kiddy's Class, Mango, McDonald's, Burger King, Oysho, Pull and Bear, Staples, Leroy Merlin, and Stradivarius.

Caldas has several supermarkets and hypermarkets, including Aldi, Continente Modelo, E.Leclerc, Lidl (two locations), Continente Bom Dia, Meu Super, Minipreço (two locations), Pão de Açúcar, Pingo Doce (three locations), and Intermarché.

Vivaci Caldas da Rainha, opened in November 2008 next to the rebuilt Hotel Lisbonense, is the first large shopping centre in Caldas. Vivaci's four floors contain sixty stores and services, including fourteen restaurants, a five-screen movie theatre, and a supermarket. The CaldasShopping building, opened in December 2008 at the intersection of Rua Dr. Miguel Bombarda and Rua Raul Proença, has space for about forty shops, indoor and outdoor esplanades seating 200 to 250, offices, and thirteen apartments. The Centro Bordalo shopping centre—to be built across the street from and connected by a pedestrian bridge to the existing Continente Modelo hypermarket—was originally scheduled to open in 2010 with 95 stores and 1,100 parking spaces. Developer Sonae Sierra planned to invest 56 million euros in the 24,000-square-metre (260,000 sq ft) centre, but the financial crisis of 2007–08 caused postponement of the project.

Statistics Caldas da Rainha has ten lodging establishments, six of which are hotels (one 4-star, three 3-star, and two 2-star), and four of which are guest houses (pensões). Lodging capacity totals 948, with 790 in the hotels and 158 at the guest houses. In 2012, there were 25 banks in the municipality.

Average monthly earnings in the municipality is €894.81 according to 2011 data. Nova Serviços, with 1,504 employees, is the largest employer in Caldas and the second largest in the district of Leiria. Schaeffler Portugal, with 387 employees, is the second largest employer in Caldas and tenth largest in the district. Caldas counts three firms among the district's top fifty exporters: Schaeffler Portugal (5th), Promol (22nd), and Sotrapex (24th).

Based on 2018 sales volume, the top 20 business firms in Caldas da Rainha are: 1 Auto Júlio, S.A. light vehicle sales; 2 Schaeffler Portugal, Unipessoal, Lda manufacture of bearings, gears, etc.; 3 TS - Thomaz dos Santos, S.A. wholesale minerals and metals; 4 Transwhite - Transportes, Unipessoal, S.A. road shipping of goods; 5 AL Automóveis, Unipessoal Lda light vehicle sales; 6 Promol - Indústria de Velas, S.A. candle manufacturing; 7 LogiQueen, Lda transport logistics; 8 LFG - Comércio de Veículos e Combustíveis, Lda motor vehicle fuel sales; 9 RDO - Rodoviária do Oeste, Lda interurban bus transport; 10 Auto Júlio II, Combustíveis, S.A. wholesale petroleum products; 11 Manuel Rodrigues Ferreira, S.A. wholesale construction materials; 12 Frutas Classe - Comércio de Frutas, S.A. wholesale fruit and horticultural products; 13 Frigosto - Indust. Transf. Prep. Prod. Congelados, Lda fish and seafood; 14 Becosa - Comércio e Distribuição de Bebidas, S.A wholesale beverages; 15 Santos, Monteiro & Cia, Lda. wholesale furniture, carpets, rugs, and lighting; 16 Casa Queridos, Produtos para a Agricultura, Lda flowers, plants, seeds, and fertilizer; 17 PetroCaldas - Comércio de Combustíveis, Lda motor vehicle fuel sales; 18 IVO - Cutelarias, Lda. cutlery manufacturing; 19 Aki-D'el-Mar, Comércio de Mariscos Lda wholesale fish, crustaceans, and mollusks; 20 Rodrigues & Lourenço, Lda wholesale chemical products.

Lisbon Time 
Lisbon Time
Image: Adobe Stock dudlajzov #181264249

Caldas da Rainha has a population of over 51,729 people. Caldas da Rainha also forms the centre of the wider Oeste region which has a population of over 362,540 people. It is also a part of the larger Leiria District.

To set up a UBI Lab for Caldas da Rainha see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Caldas da Rainha is a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for Craft and Folk Art see: https://en.unesco.org/creative-cities

Twin Towns - Sister Cities Caldas da Rainha has links with:

🇦🇴 Huambo, Angola 🇦🇴 Lubango, Angola 🇧🇷 Poços de Caldas, Brazil
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

Antipodal to Caldas da Rainha is: 170.865,-39.407

Locations Near: Caldas da Rainha -9.13458,39.407

🇵🇹 Alcobaça -8.981,39.549 d: 20.6  

🇵🇹 Leiria -8.812,39.744 d: 46.5  

🇵🇹 Santarém -8.683,39.233 d: 43.4  

🇵🇹 Algueirão-Mem_Martins -9.35,38.8 d: 70  

🇵🇹 Queluz e Belas -9.255,38.755 d: 73.2  

🇵🇹 Sintra -9.383,38.783 d: 72.6  

🇵🇹 Amadora -9.233,38.733 d: 75.4  

🇵🇹 Lisbon -9.133,38.717 d: 76.8  

🇵🇹 Almada -9.15,38.667 d: 82.3  

🇵🇹 Oeiras -9.317,38.683 d: 82  

Antipodal to: Caldas da Rainha 170.865,-39.407

🇳🇿 Richmond 173.183,-41.333 d: 19724.5  

🇳🇿 Nelson 173.284,-41.269 d: 19723.8  

🇳🇿 Stratford 174.283,-39.333 d: 19721.2  

🇳🇿 Canterbury 171.58,-43.543 d: 19551.3  

🇳🇿 Whanganui 175.05,-39.932 d: 19652.2  

🇳🇿 Wellington 174.767,-41.283 d: 19624.2  

🇳🇿 Porirua 174.84,-41.131 d: 19627.2  

🇳🇿 Hutt 174.917,-41.217 d: 19617  

🇳🇿 Lower Hutt 174.917,-41.217 d: 19617  

🇳🇿 Christchurch 172.617,-43.517 d: 19535.4  

Bing Map

Option 1