We don’t know the name given to Manteigas village, and by whom it would have been founded since that there is no monument from which we can conclude something. Tradition says that Julius Caesar came here, fifty years B.C., before his soldiers.

The origin of the courts and privileges, the habits and customs of Manteigas village, whose name is found in many documents of the 12^th century and following, are similar to those of many other surrounding villages who settled around the foothills of the mountain known in those ancient times as Mount Hermeni, nowadays called Serra da Estrela.

In 1188, D. Sancho I gave the first charter to Manteigas village and D. Manuel I gave it a new charter on 4^th March 1514 in Lisbon. This one, besides the interest it has as a certifying document of the autonomy of the village at that time, has a great meaning because in it we find the oldest and most reliable reference to the charter D. Sancho I granted to Manteigas.

Of the four parishes that constitute the Municipality, we know that Santa Maria and São Pedro parishes were founded between 1336 and 1338. Sameiro Parish, which belonged to Covilhã Municipality and to the extinct Valhelhas Municipality, was only attached to Manteigas Municipality in 1896. Manteigas Municipality, extinct on 26^th June 1896 and attached to that of Guarda, was restored on 13^th January 1898. Vale de Amoreira Parish was incorporated in the Municipality from the 1^st January 2002, under the Law nr. 29/2001 of 12^th July.