Vila

Vila, incorporated township of the Portuguese Empire. The first vila in Brazil was established in São Vicente in 1532. By 1650, only thirty-seven more vilas and cities had been founded, seven by the crown and the remainder by local initiative. The vila incorporated both secular and ecclesiastical power as the site of the town council and church. Town councils (câmaras municipais; Senados Da Câmara) consisted of elected councilmen, justices of the peace, and the procurator; appointed auxiliary employees. After 1696, a crown magistrate (juiz de fora) was added. Town councils exercised broad local powers including taxation, price setting, market supervision, hygiene standards, law enforcement, and public works. During the colonial period, councils overstepped their formal boundaries and even overruled viceroys and governors. Their political and judicial powers were curtailed under the empire in 1828.

See alsoCities and Urbanization; Portuguese Empire.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Charles R. Boxer, Portuguese Society in the Tropics: The Municipal Councils of Goa, Macao, Bahia, and Luanda, 1510–1800 (1965).

A. J. R. Russell-Wood, "Local Government in Portuguese America: A Study in Cultural Divergence," in Comparative Studies in Society and History 16 (March 1974): 187-231.

Richard M. Morse, "Brazil's Urban Development: Colony and Empire," in From Colony to Nation: Essays on the Independence of Brazil, edited by A. J. R. Russell-Wood (1975).

Additional Bibliography

Centurião, Luiz Ricardo Michaelsen. A cidade colonial no Brasil. Porto Alegre, Brazil: EDIPUCRS, 1999.

                                    Judy Bieber Freitas

Vila

Vili were nymphs who frequented the forests at the bases of the Eastern Alps. According to popular belief, they could be seen traversing glades, mounted on stags, or driving from peak to peak on chariots of clouds. Old Serbian ballads tell how Marko, the great hero of ancient Serbia, was joined in a bond of brotherhood with a Vila, who showed to him the secrets of the future. At that period, Serbia was a mighty nation, extending from the Alps to the Black Sea, from the Danube to the Adriatic.