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Theme Week Alentejo – Mértola

Wednesday, 22 February 2023 - 12:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union
Category/Kategorie: General Reading Time:  4 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Mértola is a municipality in southeastern Portuguese Alentejo near the Spanish border. In 2011, the population was 7,274, in an area of approximately 1,292.87 square kilometres (499.18 sq mi): it is the sixth-largest municipality in Portugal. Meanwhile, it is the second-lowest population centre by density with approximately 5.62 persons/1 square kilometre (0.39 sq mi) (second to the adjacent Alcoutim).

The seat of the municipality is the town of Mértola, which has around 2800 inhabitants (2011), located on a hill over the Guadiana River. Its strategic location made it an important fluvial commercial port in Classical Antiquity, through the period of Umayyad conquest of Hispania: Mértola’s main church (the Church of Nossa Senhora da Anunciação) was the only medieval mosque to have survived the period in Portugal. In 2017 Mértola started the process to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In 1238, in the context of the Reconquista, the town was conquered by Portuguese King Sancho II, putting an end on several centuries of Islamic rule in the Mértola region. The town was donated to the Knights of the Order of St. James, a Military Order that played a vital role in the Christian conquest of Southern Portugal. The seat of the Order was established in Mértola until 1316. From the Reconquista time date most of the castle, including its mighty keep, and a letter of feudal rights (foral), granted in 1254.The economic importance of Mértola and the Guadiana faded after that period. In the 15th-16th centuries, when the Portuguese conquered several cities in the Maghreb, Mértola experienced a brief revival in its economic relevance, supplying Portuguese troops in Northern Africa with cereals. King Manuel I granted a new foral to the town in 1512.

After a long period of economic stagnation, the discovery of copper in the S. Domingos mines led to a new wave of development that would end abruptly in 1965, when the mine was exhausted. In the next decades, the municipality lost much of its population, who emigrated to richer parts of Portugal and other European countries. Starting in the 1980s, a series of archaeological surveys brought to light various remnants of past periods of Mértola, and the town became an important cultural touristic site.

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Read more on Wikipedia Mértola. Learn more about the use of photos. To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.