Portugal Fact

Portugal

Portugal became an independent kingdom, free from Spanish Sovereignty, in 1139. It's name derives from Portucale, a Roman and Post-Roman settlement at the month of the Douro River. By the ninth century and the name was applied to a county between the Douro and Minho rivers. However, Portugal became a focus of maritime expansion and trade when it's navigators sailed out to explore naerly two thirds of the world.

The sea remains significant for Portugal. The population is densest along the coast; the largest cities are seaports; and the chief industries, best farming areas, and main transport routes are near the coast.

The Land

Surface Features

The best-known features of the Portuguese landscape are the valleys of the Douro and Tejo rivers. Narrow and steep-walled in their upper corses, they widen into broad, flat-bottomed valleys as they approach the coast. Much of the land between these rivers, particularly in the north east, is rugged and mountainous. Portugal's highest peak, the Malhao de Estrela 6,539 feet or 1,993 meters, is in the sera de Estrela the continuation of Spain's Sierr a de Guedarrama. The land south of the Tejo, more than half of Portugal, consists largly of plains, less than 600 feet or 180 meters in elevation.

Climate

Because of the Atlantics exposure, the climate in most of Portugal is moderate and similar to that in California. Yet there are a number of distinct climatic zones: The north western, with abundant rain, moderate winters, and short summers; the north eastern, with long, cold, snowy winters and scorching summers; and the southern, with limited rain and summer drought, moderate winters, and long hot summers. In Lisbon, which enjoys low humidity, the temperature ranges from 46F 8C in January to 82F 28C in August.

People

Population

Since the mid-18th century the Potuguese population has tripled, rising from 3,397,000 in 1841 to an estimated 9,894,000 in 1980. This increase was due chiefly to an excess of births over deaths. In the later 1970's the birth rate was still around 19 per thousand, while the death rate was between 10 and 11 per thousand. Natural increase has been partly offset by emigration. During most of this century Portuguese emigrants went mainly to the Americas. But the population today is 9,894,000 people.

Cities

The largest and most important. City in Portugal os Lisbon with 829,900 residents in 1975. Lisbon is the capital and principal port, the crossroads of road and rail routes, an international air center, and an industrial center. Suburban expansion has been so rapicl that by 1970 metropolitan Lisbon contained 18 percent of the country's population.

Petrochemical plants, Shipyards, and factories of many kinds contitute an industrial complex that extends into suburs as America, Almada and Barreiro. Port the regional capital of the north,is the second largest city. Porto is the natural center for the Douro Valley and is celebrated for producing port wine.

Language

Portugal is the mother tongue of about 135 million people on two continents. The language is derived from Latin, as is Spanish, which it resembles, although differences in pornunciation and grammar tend to make the two quite distinct. Portugal contains Arabic and Tentonic words as well as some words from the languages of the Asians with whom Portuguese explorers and traders came into contact. The greatest work of Portugal literature. The Lusiads, is an epic poem telling of these early explorations.

Religion

Potugal is a Roman Catholic country by history and tradition, and some 90 percent of the population is Catholic, Church and state are separated, however, and the Church receives no direct financial support from the state. About 5 percent of the population claims on religious affiliation, Less than one percent of the population is Protestant. There are Orthodox Jewish Synagogues in Lisbon and Porto, but there are only about 500 Jews.

Economy

Although portugal is thought of as an agricultural country, Portuguese agriculture has declined grealty in importance. The country now depends heavily for its income on manufacturing, which regularly acconts for about one third of the gross domestic product was valued at about $15.8 billion in 1975. The country's per capita GDP, amounting to $1,670 in 1975, is the lowest in Europe.

Food & Wine

Portugal's kitchens whip up a number of aromatic poultry, game, and seafood dishes. Olive oil, garlic, herbs, and sea salt routinely spice local specialties: lemon juice, chili peppers, and marmelada, a tangy quince presrve, may add regional flavor.

Soups are haerty and filling. Slurping the thick caldo verde, a potato and spinach or cabbage mixture with olive oil is practically a national obsession. Sweating hikers can cool off with spicy southern gaspacho. For light eaters, Caldeirada a fragateira and sopa de mariscos can make a scrumptious meal. Portugal has many fine cheeses. The soft, chewy serra cheese comes from ewe's milk: tangy cabreiro takes it's name from goat's milk. Alvorca stands for a varirty of hand cheeses made from cow's, goat's, or ewe's milk.

Portuguese sandwiches are smaller that their Spanish counterparts, but a bifana which is hot slice of meat on a hard roll makes a good snack. Be careful when munching bread, butter, cheese, vegetable pate, and olives befor your meal-all of these combined can raise your bill considerably.

Don't leave the country without sampling Portuguese wine. Port, pressed from the red grapes of the Douro Valley and fermented with a touch of brandy, is a dessert in itself. Chilled white port makes a snappy a peritif. A unique heating process gives Madeiru wines their old "cooked" flavor. Try the dry Sercial and Verdelho as aperitifs, and the Sweeter Bual and Malmsey as dessert wines. Sparkling vinho verde. Comes in red and white versions.

Education

The illiteracy rate among those more than 7 years old dropped from 70% in 1911 to 30% by 1967 because of compulsory and free education of each child for six years and the creation of additional and better rural schools as well as urban night schools. Secondary academic and technical education, the prerequisite for a higher education, is Volintary and not free of charge even in the public schools, but the state fees are low and scholarships are available. Thus, technical, semiproferrional, and professional careers are within reach of every student who has the required Education.

Patterns of living

Many traditions and customs are now changing in Portugal. Yet, despite increasing industrialization, the family remains the core of Pourtuguese society and the nucleus of the closest affection. Women must still adhere to the strictest appearance of propriety.

In 1966 they made up adout one fifth of the total labor force and about one sixth of all industrial workers. Employed as domestics and in other nonsalaried occupation. Among the rural Portuguese many distinctive national putterns have survived.

CULTURE

Portuguese culture is closely ralated to a Spanish culture and has been influenced by the three primany culture from which it derives: the latin, the Visigoth, and the Muslim Lisbon has a number of important libraries, including the library of the Academy of Sciences, the Ajuda Library, the Nation Library, and the Military Library.

The Nation Archives of Torre do Tombo, also in Lisbon, is noteworthy for its collection of historical documents dating from the 9th century. The provincial libraries in Oporto, E'vora, Bragaand Mafra contain many rare old books and large manuscript collections. Various specialized libraries are attached to the unniversities. Museums of archaeology, art,avd ethnography are found in the princpal cities and towns of each distract.

The art museum in Coimbra is famous for its collection of 16th- century sculpture; the museum in E'vora is known for Roman Sclpture and 16th -century paintings. The Nation Museum of Ancient Art,in Lisbon house decorative art and paintings from the 12th to the 19th century. Also in Lisbon are the Nation Museum of Contemportary Art; the Nation Museum of Natural History; the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, with a collection of fine art dating from 2800BC to the 20th century; the Ethnographical Museum.

Some of the relics found in Portugal date from prehistoric times. Dol mens, ancient stone burial charmbers, have been found along the Atlantic coast, and in the Algarve region, tomb dating from the Iron Age have been discover. Some of the country's most impotant mounments were constructed during the Roman occuptionof the Iberian Peninsula (2nd century Bc-5th century AD) The so-called Temple of Diana in the southeast the ruins of the city of Conimbriga on the western coast, and the bridgeof Chaves in Trasos Montes e Alto Duro in the east are fine example of Roman arechitecture. Subsequent occuption by thew Visigoths in the 5th century and by the Muslim Moors in the 8th century can be discerned in the styles of many of Portugal's building and churches. The 14th century was the golden ageof Portuguese Sculpture, at which time such notable monuments as the tombs of the king at Alcobaca were produced. The sculptors of the Renaissance and baroque periods in Portugal did their finest work for the church. The Portuguese are musical people, and folk music ranges from wery lively songs and dances to sad laments. Similar to other music of the Iberian Penninsula, Portuguese music reflects three major influences: the Roman Catholic church, trubadours of the kings, and the wandering minsterls who sang their stories across the countryside. Portugal, republic southwestern Europe, situated in the western portion of the Iberian Peninsula, Bounded on the north and east by Spain and on the south and west by the Altantic.

HISTORY

Up to the Middle Ages, the hitory of portugal is inseparable from that of Spain. Present-day portugal became a part of the Roman province of Lusitania in the 2nd century BC, In the 5th century AD control of the region passed the Visigoths, and in the 8th century it was included in the area of Moorish Muslim conquest.

In 997 the territory between the Douro and Minho rivers (now northern portugal ) was retaken from the Moors by Bermudo II, King of leon, and in 1064 the reconquest was completede as far south as present-day Coimbra by Ferdinand I, Kingof Castile and leon, The reconquered districts were then organized into a feudal country, composed of Spanish fiefs. Portugal later derived its name from the northernmost fief, the Comitatus Portaculenis, which extended around the old Roman seaport of Portus cale (present-day Oporto).

In 1093 Henry of Burgundy (died 1112) came to the assistance of Castile when it was invaded by the Moors. In gratitude Alfonso I of Castile made Henry count of Portugal. On the death of Alfonso in 1109, Count Henry,and later his widow, Teresa, refused to continue feudal allgiance to leon. He invaded Leon and began a series of peninular wars, but with little suyccess.

In 1128 his son, Alfonso Henriques, later Alfonso I, King of portugal, rebelled against his mother. The Portugal Knights accepted Alfonso as King in 1143, and in 1179 the pope recognized the independence of Portugal.