The Braga Brief, Week of 18 September 2026: Concentrix Adds 200 Jobs at Braga's Station, Three Fires Burn Across the Cávado and the Lima, and Viana Answers the Court That Stopped Its Market

Good morning from the Minho. A call-centre operator in the railway station building wants another 200 French speakers, three separate fires kept crews out across the Cávado and the Lima, and Viana's council has filed its answer in the case that stopped its new market. Here is your roundup for 12 to 18 September.

Two hundred more jobs at Braga's station

Concentrix is recruiting 200 people in Braga, all of them fluent in French, for teams serving international clients. The company already employs 1,800 people in the city, and it is hiring into customer support, technology and sales, plus projects tied to the financial, travel, health, automotive and retail sectors.

Carlos Moreira, the firm's managing director in Portugal, said the openings "reflect the growth of the projects we develop from Braga", and pointed to the city's link to higher education and its pull on workers from elsewhere in the region. The operation sits in the Estação Ferroviária building, which the company says it has been upgrading alongside the hiring.

Three fires, and a 79-year-old with matches

A fire that started at 21:20 on Sunday in the freguesia of Esperança, Póvoa de Lanhoso, crossed the boundary into Vieira do Minho and reached Guilhofrei. By midday Monday there were 93 operationals, 26 vehicles and seven aircraft on it, working scrubland with no houses at risk and no roads cut. The Ave civil protection command blamed the lack of access tracks and the steepness of the ground.

Three days later it was Vila Verde's turn. A fire reported at 20:43 on Wednesday in Valdreu had 140 operationals, 43 vehicles and four aircraft on it by Thursday afternoon, with two fronts, one of them nearly out. The Cávado sub-command wanted it closed before dark, because strong gusts were forecast from 21:00. No injuries, nothing destroyed.

And on Thursday the Polícia Judiciária, working with the GNR, detained a 79-year-old man from Calheiros, Ponte de Lima, over a fire set in his own freguesia on 4 September with matches, in mid-afternoon heat and wind, close to farmland and several houses. The PJ said he acted for personal reasons. It is one more for a national tally we covered last week: 173 fire suspects detained by the GNR so far this year.

A late Dane, and two Minho sides that could not hold on

Sp. Braga 1-0 Estoril Praia, Monday night, round six. Jonas Wind scored on 83 minutes, some twenty minutes after Estoril's centre-back Ferro collected a second yellow and left them with ten. Braga climb to seventh on ten points; Estoril are 17th of 18 and still without a win, on two.

The other two did worse. Vitória de Guimarães lost 2-1 at Académico de Viseu on Saturday: Gohi put Viseu ahead on 53, Guimarães levelled fourteen minutes later, and Bouldini won it in the third minute of added time. Vitória sit 12th on four points and have still not scored a point away from home. And Famalicão took a point off Sporting with ten men, 1-1, an unlucky Gonçalo Inácio own goal on 90 minutes.

Viana answers the court, and wants the bill paid

Viana do Castelo's council has filed its opposition in the injunction brought by the heritage association Vian'Acorda, which halted construction of the new municipal market. The Tribunal Administrativo e Fiscal de Braga had given the council ten days from 1 September; the deadline fell on the 22nd, and mayor Luís Nobre told Tuesday's executive meeting the answer had already gone in.

He also said he will do "everything, to exhaustion" to see the municipality compensated, and warned that the contractor will now seek a price revision. The works had only restarted on 1 September after a January suspension for archaeology on the site of the old prédio Coutinho, where excavation turned up non-religious structures of the 16th-century Convento de São Bento. The council wants the finds moved into a future archaeology hub at Praia Norte. We covered the association's first day in court on 5 September.

Barcelos doctors start prescribing walks

The ULS de Barcelos has launched AtivaMente, under which doctors will prescribe walking, pilates, hydrogymnastics, mindfulness, traditional games and animal-assisted therapy to treat depression. Between 25 and 30 adults will do three sessions a week for twelve weeks, until 10 December, with two trained dogs, Salvador and Lassie, brought in to work on confidence and communication. José Moreira, who runs primary care for Barcelos and Esposende, called it "a starting point for an effective response" on mental health.

Also this week

Paredes de Coura has introduced a nap hour across public and private pre-school this academic year, buying stacking cots and reworking the nursery rooms, and has extended free municipal school transport down to pre-school age. Mayor Tiago Cunha framed that second change as taking a daily cost and a daily school run off parents.

At the Forte da Lagarteira in Vila Praia de Âncora, Ferraz Fernandes was sworn in as Caminha's port captain and commander of its maritime police, and named drug trafficking on the Rio Minho as his standing concern, citing the speedboats found at Lanhelas and Moledo. His jurisdiction runs from Caminha up through Vila Nova de Cerveira, Valença and Monção to Melgaço, and the river's international status puts him on the cross-border commissions with Spain.

In Guimarães, PS councillors sent mayor Ricardo Araújo an open letter asking whether Gaza came up when he met Israel's ambassador. He replied that he receives every ambassador accredited to Portugal, thirteen of them this month alone, and that foreign policy is the central state's business.

And the Braga trial over 141 counts of practising law without a degree reached its second session on Wednesday. Luís Rufo, 71, told the court he forged nothing and "did all the subjects", across Coimbra, the Universidade Livre and the Portucalense. Prosecutors say he passed one first-year subject at Coimbra and failed the other five.

The week ahead

The 36th Encontros da Imagem opens in Braga today and runs to 1 November under the title "Territórios do Imaginário / Lugares Encantados", across the Palácio do Raio, the Museu Nogueira da Silva, the Casa Rolão, the zet Galeria, gnration and the Biblioteca Lúcio Craveiro da Silva.

Looking further out, Close-Up, the Famalicão film show run by the Casa das Artes, has published its eleventh edition: 10 to 17 October, built around conflict between parents and children, opening with JP Simões scoring Siodmak and Ulmer's "Menschen am Sonntag" live and closing with Samuel Úria playing to Ozu. Thirty-odd sessions in all.

See you next Friday.