Population: 10,584,344
Calling code: +351
Currency: Euro (EUR)
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a unitary sovereign
country located in southwestern Europe, whose territory is located in
the western part of the Iberian Peninsula and in archipelagos in the
North Atlantic. The Portuguese territory has a total area of 92 090 km2,
being delimited to the North and East by Spain and to the South and West
by The Atlantic Ocean, comprising a continental part and two autonomous
regions: the archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira. Portugal is the
westernmost nation on the European continent. The name of the country
comes from its second largest city, Porto, whose Latin Celtic name was
Portus Cale.
The territory within the current borders of the
Portuguese Republic has been continuously populated since prehistoric
times: occupied by lusitanians and by Celts, such as the gallaecians, it
was integrated into the Roman Republic and later annexed by Germanic
peoples, such as the suevi and the Visigoths. In the VIII century, the
lands were conquered by the moors. During the Christian Reconquest the
Portucalense County was formed, established in the ninth century by
Vímara Peres, a vassal of the king of Asturias. The county became part
of the Kingdom of León in 1097, and the counts of Portugal established
themselves as independent rulers of the kingdom in the twelfth century,
after the Battle of São Mamede. In 1139 the Kingdom of Portugal was
established, whose independence was recognized in 1143. In 1297 the
borders were defined in the Treaty of Alcanizes, making Portugal the
oldest nation-state in Europe with defined borders. In the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, as a result of pioneering work in the age of
Discovery (see: Portuguese discoveries), Portugal expanded Western
influence and established an empire that included possessions in Africa,
Asia, Oceania and South America, becoming the most important economic,
political and military power in the world. The Portuguese Empire was the
first global empire in history, beginning with the conquest of Ceuta in
1415, but the country's international importance was deteriorating
during the nineteenth century, a century marked by the independence of
Brazil, its largest colony.
With the revolution of 1910, the
monarchy was abolished, counting 34 monarchs between 1139 and 1910. The
first Portuguese Republic was very unstable, due to high
parliamentarism. The regime gave way to a military dictatorship due to
an uprising on May 28, 1926. Already in 1933, the Estado Novo was
established, an authoritarian regime originally presided over by Salazar
that lasted until 1974. Representative democracy was established after
the revolution of 25 April 1974, which ended the colonial war. During
this period, the overseas provinces of Portugal, such as Angola and
Mozambique, became independent, and finally, in 1999, the transfer of
sovereignty from Macau to China took place, marking the end of an empire
with almost 600 years of existence and the longest lasting of the
European colonial empires.
Portugal is a developed country, with
a Human Development Index (HDI) considered very high. The country was
ranked 22nd.In 2023), and is also one of the most globalized and
peaceful nations in the world. It is a member of the United Nations
(UN), the European Union (including the Euro zone and the Schengen
Area), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the community of
Portuguese-speaking countries (CPLP). Portugal also participates in
several United Nations peacekeeping missions.
North (Douro Litoral,
Minho, Trás-os-Montes e Alto
Douro)
The North has the most monuments in the country, including
some of the oldest. It is considered the birthplace of the nation and
includes the country's first capital, Guimarães, the city of Braga,
known as the city of the Archbishops and the second most important
Portuguese city, Porto.
Center-North (Beira
Alta, Beira Baixa,
Beira Litoral)
It is also a very
historic region of the country, which attracts people from all over the
country to Serra da Estrela, the only point in the country where there
are resorts and ski slopes in winter. It includes Fátima, a worldwide
pilgrimage destination, and Coimbra, famous worldwide for its
university, is the city of knowledge.
Center-South (Estremadura
— Greater Lisbon, Oeste,
Setúbal Peninsula; Ribatejo,
Alto Alentejo)
This is the heart of
the country, including the capital and some of the most fabulous beaches
in the country, such as São Pedro de Moel and Nazaré, among others. It
includes Lisbon, the political, cultural and economic center of the
country, Évora, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the bullfighting
region of Santarém.
South (Baixo
Alentejo, Algarve)
Tourist region par
excellence, the Algarve and its beaches are the main attraction of this
region and the country. In addition to the beaches, it also includes the
historic cities of Beja, Tavira and Faro, the Fortress of Sagres and the
Badoca Safari Park in Santiago do Cacém, a piece of Africa in Europe.
Azores
Autonomous region overseas. In
the Azores, the city of Angra do Heroísmo is a charming historic Azorean
town, and Lagoa das Sete Cidades, the visiting card of the Azores.
Madeira
Autonomous region overseas. The
beautiful island of Madeira, with its cliffs leading down to the
Atlantic Ocean and its famous fireworks display to celebrate New Year's
Eve.
Lisbon is the largest city in Portugal and also the capital of the country. It numbers over half a million in population and covers a large area, however its historic centre is what usually draws thousands of tourists here.
Braga, the third Portuguese
city
Aveiro, the Portuguese Venice
Coimbra, city of students
Évora, world heritage city
Faro, tourist center of Portugal
Porto, the undefeated city and the second city
in the country in terms of importance
Viana do Castelo, where the
biggest pilgrimage in the country takes place
Santarém, city with
history and crossed by the Tagus river and the city of bullfights
Guimarães, "cradle city", first capital of the country with a
well-preserved historic center and world heritage
Alcobaça Monastery is a Roman Catholic abbey situated in Alcobaça, Leiria District. It was found in 1153 by Afonso I Henriques.
Medieval Almourol Castle in Vila Nova de Barquinha parish was constructed on a site of an ancient Roman citadel.
Arraiolos Castle is a round medieval citadel in a city of Arraiolos, Évora District in Portugal.
Catholic Batalha Monastery or Mosteiro Santa Maria da Vitória was constructed to commemorate Portuguese victory over its enemies.
Conímbriga is the largest and most sophisticated Ancient Roman settlement in Portugal. It is situated 2 km South of Condeixa- a- Nova.
Convent of the Order of Christ in Tomar is a Catholic abbey that was originally constructed as a castle for Templar knights.
Medieval Evoramonte Castle became famous as a signing site that ended a Portugues Civil War in the 19th century.
The Monserrate Palace is a former palatial villa located near a town of Sintra in Portugal. It was build in 1858 for English baronet Sir Francis Cook.
Mosteiro dos Jeronimos is one of the largest religious complexes of Roman Catholic Church in Lisbon and certainly one of the most visited one.
Close proximity of Sintra National Palace to Lisbon and its designation as an World Heritage Site makes it one of the most visited tourist destinations in Portugal.
Medieval Palmela Castle is a former Araba fortress that saw actions for most of its long history till it was badly damaged by an earthquake.
Pena National Palace is without a doubt one of the most picturesque and unique residence in Portugal and all of Europe.
Queluz National Palace is a magnificent 18th century Portuguese estate in Queluz, Lisbon District.
Medieval Sabugal Castle was constructed in the 13th century on a hill overlooking crossing of Côa river.
New Year - January 1;
Carnival Tuesday -
February/March, the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent;
Good Friday - March/April, Friday in Holy Week;
Freedom Day - April
25, the anniversary of the 1974 revolution;
Labor Day - May 1;
Feast of Corpus Christi - May / June, the ninth Thursday after Easter;
Portugal Day - June 10;
Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin -
August 15;
Republic Day - October 5, the anniversary of the
proclamation in 1910 of the Republic of Portugal;
All Saints Day -
November 1;
Independence Day - December 1, the anniversary of the
declaration of independence from Spain in 1640;
Feast of the
Immaculate Conception - December 8;
Christmas - December 25
For citizens of the European Union, it is not necessary to have any
type of visa, just carry a legal document that identifies the person.
If you have a passport you should take it and take a photocopy of the
main page.
Brazilian and Cape Verdean citizens do not need any visa
to enter the country as tourists, but must be passport holders. However,
for stays longer than 90 days they will have to go to the SEF to acquire
a residence visa.
By plane
The plane is the main means of
transport used by tourists. Portela/Lisbon Airport is the busiest and
the one that receives the most tourists throughout the year. The
Airports of Porto / Sá Carneiro (Pedras Rubras,Maia) and Faro/Algarve
also stand out since, with the introduction of low-cost flights, many
lines were created between these cities and the rest of the European
Union.
From Brazil, TAP offers direct flights to Lisbon. From
Africa, companies such as TAAG (Angola) and TACV (Cape Verde) also fly
to the Portuguese capital.
By boat
Due to having a large
coastline, the boat is a means of transport widely used to reach
Portugal, namely the Algarve and Lisbon. The Port of Lisbon receives
throughout the year and Daily several cruise ships, from 3 stars to 5
stars, with a capacity of 2 to 3 thousand passengers. Being the annual
average of approximately 300 cruises, which call in Lisbon.
By
car
With an excellent national road network, it is easy and fast to
get around Portugal from North to South and from East to West. The main
road entry points in Portugal are: North: Valença (direct access to the
A3) and Chaves (direct access to the A7) Center: Vilar Formoso (direct
access to the A25) South: Elvas / Caia (direct access to the A6) and
Vila Real De Santo António (direct access to the A22)
By bus
The bus has played a key role in transport between countries in Europe.
Many tourists from the central part of the continent prefer to get to
Portugal by bus because it is cheaper and more effective.
Many
tour groups use the bus to get to Fatima, a world pilgrimage site.
By train
There are several railways to reach Portugal, including
from Vigo, Cáceres, Badajoz, Salamanca and Madrid.
There are
trains out of the country from the country's major cities such as
Lisbon, Porto, Évora, Aveiro, Coimbra and Faro. Lisbon is connected with
Madrid (Spain); the port with Vigo (Spain); Vilar de Formoso to Spain,
France and the rest of Europe. In the south of the country it is not
possible to enter the country by train from Spain. Southeastern Portugal
is connected by international lines (Linha do Este and linha de
Cárceres) to Spain. For example; from Elvas / Caia, Portugal to Badajoz,
Spain; from Marvão-Beira, Portugal to Valencia de Alcántara, Spain. For
more information see the website of Comboios de Portugal.
By car/motorcycle
The roads are generally in good condition. All
major cities can be easily reached via motorways or highways. The
largest cities all have (mostly toll) motorway connections, and from
north to south you can also use the motorway at full length. However,
some side roads are in poor condition, which can make them dangerous if
you are not careful.
By car you can go anywhere. From Faro to
Porto there is a motorway (A2/ A1). The A2 leads to Lisbon, then you
have to take the A1 to Porto if the destination is to be Porto or
similar. Since 2005, you can take the motorway from Porto to Vilar
Formoso to the Spanish border. This route is about 300 kilometers long.
Both the bridge "Ponte 25 Abril" and the bridge "Vasco da Gama" next to
the former Expo site are also worth a crossing for tourists. Almost all
motorways are subject to tolls.
Here are a few points to keep in
mind on the toll highways:
The system is difficult and
complicated and offers several ways to pay the toll, for some routes
(e.g. Algarve motorway between Lagos and Castro Marim) - marked with
"electronic toll only" - you have to pre-book and pay for the toll
control online with license plate registration (www.portugaltolls.pt or
visitportugal.com ), which is the most convenient way, because, for
example, you pay about 20 € for three days and can drive through on the
"via verde" without stopping (observe the 60 km / h limit!).
Furthermore, you can rent electronic devices that can be charged with
money for a certain time at border crossing points or rest stops.
However, these devices can only be returned at the rental location. For
rental cars, you should arrange the procedure with the landlord. In
addition, payment options in cash or with credit cards are also
possible, but not on all motorways. A subsequent payment at post offices
is supposedly also possible, but not earlier than 2 days after the trip.
The Brisa service is available 24 hours a day, all year round. If
something is wrong with the car, he is quickly on the spot. The
telephone number is 808 508 508. This number is available at every
motorway entrance.
The following speed restrictions apply in
Portugal:
Highway: 120 km/h (caravan 100 km/h) Highway: 90 km/h
City: 50 km/h
New drivers (< 1 year) are allowed to drive a
maximum of 90 km/h on the motorway
In Lisbon and also in Porto
you will find a lot of speed traps. The fines can be up to € 1000,
depending on the speed.
Fuel prices are among the highest in
Europe. 1 liter of super fuel cost € 1.55 in November 2018, which is
about the same as the price in Germany.
There is also an ADAC
team in Portugal, but only for members.
By train
In the
domestic long-distance transport of Portugal, there are two categories
of trains: Alfa Pendular and Intercidades. Both are subject to
reservation. The Alfa Pendular from Porto via Coimbra and Lisbon to Faro
runs 2× daily.
There is also an Alfa Pendular that runs from
Lisbon to Porto and sometimes on to Braga. It runs to Porto 9x daily and
to Braga 4x daily.
The Intercidades runs from Lisbon to Faro 5
times a day, but takes half an hour longer than the Alfa Pendular. There
are also intercidades that run from Lisbon to Porto, but they take half
an hour longer for the route than the Alfa Pendular (8x daily.). One
train a day is bound to Guimarães.
Travel times and prices with
the Alfa Pendular (as of 2017):
Faro - Porto: 5 h 45 min / 51.50
€
Faro - Lisbon: 3 h 10 min / 22.20 €
Lisbon - Porto: 2 h 35 min /
30.30 €
Lisbon - Coimbra: 1 h 35 min / 22.80 €
Lisbon - Braga: 3 h
15 min / 32.80 €
Porto - Braga: 40 min / 14.20 €
Porto - Coimbra:
1 h / 16.70 €
Prices are for 2nd class, one way. There are various
discounts: children from 4 to 12 years old receive a 50% discount, as
well as people from 65 years old. Young people (13 to 25 years) receive
a 25% discount.
In addition, there are other train routes,
including intercidades, which can be obtained from the Portuguese
Railway Company.
If you book directly on the website of the
railway, there are massive seasonal route-dependent discounts, provided
that you reserve at least ten calendar days in advance.
By bike
There are numerous good bike paths, but they are not connected in a
network. An exception is the Ecovia do Litoral, which is part of the
EuroVelo network and runs along the coast.
The official language of Portugal is Portuguese, regularized by the
Camões Institute. Also mirandese, spoken in Miranda do Douro and
surroundings, has official status in Portugal.
Note that, if you
are from Brazil, the European standard Portuguese (spoken in all
Lusophone countries except Brazil) has differences from the Portuguese
spoken in Brazil namely:
There are some words with different
spellings: many of them, due to etymology, have consonants that, at
first glance, seem mute, as in "contact", "electricity", "scepter", etc.
and other words that are not the same between the two countries (Bus /
Bus; Train/Train; mouse/mouse; screen / screen). Note that the
Portuguese of Portugal is extremely conservative in the purity of the
language so cases of foreignness in the language are very rare;
Phrasal constructions are different. The Portuguese use much more the
emclise ("I love you"," give me a juice") while in Brazil the proclase
("I love you","give me a juice") is used more;
The Portuguese clearly
differentiate between the informal and the formal. When they address a
friend or acquaintance they use the pronoun "thou" and all prayer is
made according to that same pronoun. Hey, how are you? It's okay with
you (Hello, How Are you? Is everything okay with you?). The você in
Portugal is used to address people of a certain age or when they are not
known. When you are introduced to someone, say, " I am pleased to meet
you."
The Portuguese speak foreign languages quite well, such as
English, French and Spanish. Younger people speak English very well;
French is better understood by older people; and many people speak
and/or understand Galician and Castilian.
Historic villages
Piodon
Óbidos
Sintra
Historic
Villages
Not to be missed is to do the circuit of the historic
villages of Portugal.
World Heritage sites
Historical center
of Angra do Heroísmo (1983)
Jerónimos Monastery and Belém Tower in
Lisbon (1983)
Monastery of Batalha (1983)
Convent of Christ in
Tomar (1983)
Historical centre of Évora (1986)
Monastery of
Alcobaça (1989)
Cultural landscape of Sintra (1995)
Historical
center of Porto (1996)
Rock art sites of the Côa Valley (1998)
Laurissilva forest of Madeira Island (1999)
Historical center of
Guimarães (2001)
Upper Douro wine region (2001)
Cultural landscape
of the Pico Island Vineyard (2004)
Coimbra" University, Alta and
Sofia " (2013)
Beaches
Surrounded by The Atlantic sea in its almost entirety, the
Portuguese beaches are worth a visit. Many activities are offered, from
surfing to kitesurfing, and during the summer months the most frequented
beaches offer activities on the sand, such as aerobics. If you're not
the type to break a sweat while on vacation, almost every public beach
will have a bar where locals sit. Some of the most popular beaches are
(from North to South):
Viana do Castelo, Póvoa de Varzim,
Matosinhos, Espinho, near Porto, on the Costa Verde( Green Coast),
Northern Region .
Ovar, Barra, Costa Nova, Mira, Buarcos , Nazaré,
Peniche and Berlenga in the Costa de Prata ( Silver Coast), Central
Region .
Praia das Maçãs and Praia Grande (in Sintra), Carcavelos ,
Estoril and Cascais , near Lisbon, on the Portuguese Riviera.
Costa
da Caparica in Setúbal .
Zambujeira Do Mar, on the Alentejo Coast
(Alentejo and Vicentine Coast ).
Praia da Marinha (Praia da Marinha)
and Carvoeiro, near Lagoa, in the Algarve.
Golf
The climate,
coupled with investments in golf infrastructure, has turned the country
into a golfing paradise. Portugal was voted the" best golf destination
2006 " by the readers of Golfers Today , a British publication. Fourteen
of Portugal's courses are ranked among the top 100 in Europe. Portugal
is also a great place to learn the game and perfect technique. Many
resorts offer classes with professionals. The courses can satisfy the
discerning golfer, while newcomers won't be intimidated unless they find
the beautiful scenery and stunning views distracting from their game.
Locals have mixed feelings about golf courses, not least because of the
huge amount of water required to maintain them and their apparent
uselessness.
The countryside also offers many possibilities,
although it is necessary to stimulate the advice of travel agents a
little more than usual, as these tend to sell only beach holidays.
Cycling through the Serra do Gerês or rafting on the tributaries of the
Douro River is an exciting experience.
Events
In addition to
the” Carnival", many fairs are organized throughout the country,
especially after the end of summer and particularly in the north of
Portugal.
During the summer, music festivals are also very
common. In the north of the country two of the oldest festivals take
place in Paredes de Coura and Vilar de Mouros. The regions chosen for
the festivities are usually surrounded by beautiful landscapes and
pleasant villages. Lisbon and Porto have their "popular marches". In the
southern region the most famous is the Southwest Festival, on the
southwest coast with summer landscapes and endless beaches.
Elsewhere, traditional and religious Parish festivals to mark special
dates, harvest seasons or other important occasions are also part of the
annual calendar in most towns and villages, with religious-themed
processions running street circuits accompanied by Philharmonic bands
and accompanied by outside visitors and local congregants. Usually
people in traditional clothes, floats and fireworks are part of these
events. In the Ribatejo village of Golegã, the annual Horse Fair is
organized every November and, in addition to horses, cattle and people
in period costumes, it has evolved into an important exhibition space
for arts and crafts, agricultural products, agricultural equipment,
clothing and leather goods, wines, drinks, culinary experiences, music,
parties and so on.
In Portugal you can buy everything at very nice prices. There are numerous shopping centers scattered throughout the country. You can use credit cards such as American Express, Visa, Mastercard; checks, or otherwise in liquid. The currency is the Euro, the currency of 13 of the 27 countries of the European Union. There are popular fairs all over the country where you can buy regional products such as ceramics, wine, cheese, sausages, etc.
Portugal uses the euro, like many other European countries . One euro
is divided into 100 cents. The official sign of the euro is € and its
ISO code is EUR. There is no official symbol for the penny.
All
banknotes and coins of this common currency are legal tender in all
countries, except that low-value coins (one and two cents) are gradually
phased out in some of them. Banknotes look the same in all countries,
while coins have a common standard design on the reverse, expressing the
value, and a country-specific national design on the obverse. The
obverse is also used for different designs of commemorative coins. The
design of the obverse does not affect the acceptability of the coin.
ATMs / ATMs (termed Multibanco or ATM Express ) that accept
international cards can be found everywhere and, unlike in Spain,
usually do not charge any extra machine fees (beyond what your bank
charges in your country). Some areas are full of Euronet ATMs - although
similar to other countries, here too they charge high fees and use
disadvantageous exchange rates.
Exchange offices arise wherever
there is a constant flow of tourists. Although usually, the closer they
are to tourist attractions, the worse the rates they offer.
Exchange offices arise wherever there is a constant flow of tourists.
Although usually, the closer they are to tourist attractions, the worse
the rates they offer.
In Portugal VAT (Value Added Tax, VAT ) is included in all prices in
shops and restaurants , so it is not added at checkout. The standard
rate is 23%, with reduced rate items taxed at 13% or 6%. The rates in
Madeira are 22, 12 or 5% and in the Azores 18, 9 or 4%.
Haggle
In smaller shops (other than on the main street), you can try to
bargain, especially if you offer to buy several items. You may want to
check your change.
Overhead and cover
It seems to be a regular
practice to "accidentally" overcharge tourists or declare non-existent
or erroneous prices, both in restaurants and in smaller shops and
markets, assuming that tourists are on vacation and will rarely or never
check their change. If this is a problem for you, you will quickly
notice – let this be just a warning.
In addition, it is very
common to be charged for coverage in restaurants, even if you have not
requested it. Therefore, explicitly refuse any bread or something like
that put on your table, or simply accept it.
Tipping is generally not expected in Portugal, but it will certainly
be appreciated if you have received exemplary service.
Tips are
usually given as follows:
In restaurants: about 8% to 10% of the
total amount of the bill if the service is exemplary. Otherwise, it is
perfectly acceptable not to tip.
In coffee shops: do not tip for a
coffee, tea, cake or sandwich. However, if you eat a full meal, you can
tip 1-2 euros.
In pubs, bars and clubs: no tip
Taxis : all taxis
have meters. From the airport the taxi driver will add to the meter an
extra fee per piece of luggage. At the end of the trip, it will press a
button on the meter to show the total price on the meter screen. Tipping
the taxi driver first rounds up the cents to the euro and adds 1-2
euros. If you want to give a bigger tip they will be happy.
in doing
so, since prices are equivalent to all other locations.
Handmade
regional products-there is a popular tradition of handmade regional
clothing, toys, household items, glassware and decor. You can find them
in popular tourist spots or at better prices at fairs and inexpensive
shops of small towns.
Art and crafts-Portugal is home to some
acclaimed artists, who create paintings and sculptures with great demand
in both the national and international art market. The glazed clay works
of the famous nineteenth-century artist Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro,
continue to be reproduced in Caldas da Rainha . Regional souvenirs can
be found in shops everywhere and include the Nazaré and Galo de Barcelos
dolls .
Wines and fortified drinks – the wide variety of wines,
generous drinks and liqueurs of good quality with the seal of quality
conferred by the brand “DOC”, dispenses with the need for introduction.
All major producers are well represented in the market. Both famous and
obscure brands can be found throughout the country in specialized
beverage warehouses or in well-known chains of supermarket beverage
sections.
Arcádia-founded in 1933, this house of high quality
chocolate and sweets from Porto has seen the resurgence of its wide
range of products at affordable prices. In addition to Porto, Arcádia
today has more than twenty stores and kiosks in Lisbon, Coimbra, Aveiro
and Braga. The ideal place to satisfy the desire to eat sweets and buy
that special gift for someone.
Canned fish-Portuguese canned fish
(sardines, tuna, cod, eel, etc.) are arguably the best in the world. In
addition to the Duty Free Shop at Portela Airport, a wide variety of
Portuguese canned fish in various types of sauces can be purchased
throughout the country in food stores and supermarkets.
In Portugal, all types of establishments and businesses that deal with customers and consumers, such as hotels, restaurants, shops, car rentals, travel agencies, theaters, taxis, etc, etc, are by law required to provide a "complaints book". Registration). Compliance is usually displayed in a prominent place, easily visible when entering the premises. The purpose of the” complaints book " is to provide the consumer/customer with an official means to register complaints and in case someone refuses you the book, call a police officer to attend to it. These complaint registers are regularly inspected by the consumer law enforcement authorities to ensure that the services provided fall within the regulations and standard parameters. So if you feel harmed, do not hesitate to ask for the book and write down your complaint. You can register your complaint online ( https://www.livroreclamacoes.pt/) in Portuguese or English.
The Portuguese people have an essentially Mediterranean diet focusing
on fish and grills. The most famous dishes are:
Cod
Chanfana
Leitão à Bairrada
Caldo verde
Fish and seafood
Pastéis de nata
Roasted sardines
Port-style guts
Baked kid in the oven
Papas De
Sarrabulho
Lamprey
Portuguese stew
Rojões à Minhota
Feijoada
à Transmontana
Portugal has a gastronomy as rich and varied as
the landscape and heritage.
It is the sea that gives the most
striking characteristic to Portuguese cuisine. Taste a simple grilled
fish, always very fresh, as well as the seafood that abounds throughout
the coast and give us your opinion. A seafood or fish rice are also wise
choices.
In meat dishes, a suggestion from all over the country:
the celebrated cozido à portuguesa mixes meats and vegetables, cooked in
a juicy way.
If you are in the north, you can also taste tripas à
moda do Porto, a variety of feijoada, which is also made in
transmontana, in the interior of the region. Enjoy the famous Chaves Ham
and FoLAR transmontano. The sausages and the smokes.
Portuguese
olive oil, considered to be of great quality worldwide,is always present
and integrates all CoD recipes (they say there are 1001,...), in which
they are excellent, in the way they prepare and enjoy it.
Each
dish has a certain wine for company. There are wines throughout the
country, with its demarcated regions, that of Porto, which is famous,
the Reds of the Douro, Alentejo, Dão and many others.
The
demarcated cheese regions: Serra (da Estrela (hard)) or fresh curd
(soft), those of central Portugal (Guarda, Seia, Alcains) and those of
Alentejo.
The sweets, with roots in the many convents where they
were prepared, make us still today "give thanks to heaven". And be sure
to try a pastel de nata, preferably the famous pasteis de Belém
(Lisbon). It always goes well with coffee, espresso. In some localities
in the North and center it has the name "bica". But, if you prefer
coffee with milk, you can opt for: Gallon (in a glass cup), half-milk
(in a cup of tea), boy (in a cup of coffee) or drip (in a cup of coffee,
stronger than the boy).
From the north to the south of the country, on the mainland and in
the autonomous regions, 2568 accommodation units are listed:
41
hostels ;
620 hotels;
149 inns and hostels;
807 pensions and
residential;
119 aparthotels;
10 motels;
432 rural tourism
units (residential tourism, rural tourism, agrotourism and cottages);
181 holiday villages and apartment complexes;
64 campsites and youth
hostels;
144 private homes.
In total there are 88348 rooms, 20639
apartments and 2979 villas.
Culture, literature, Portuguese music (Fado; folklore; Popular). Mirandese language, spoken in Miranda lands (Miranda de I Douro/Miranda do Douro). Local parties.
For a citizen who is a foreigner and of origin outside the EU and intends to work in Portugal, he will have to have a work visa, that is, an employment contract.
The country is stable. Due to the difficult economic situation, demonstrations sometimes occur, especially in Lisbon. In the case of occasional strikes, disabilities and delays in travel must be expected. Bag and snatch thefts are increasing in big cities and tourist resorts. In many parking lots, especially in the vicinity of tourist attractions, illegal parking instructions are doing their mischief. If you do not pay for them, you risk finding scratches or dents in the car when you return. This extortionate approach should not be supported. Therefore, just continue to the next parking lot if someone tries to assign you a parking space. Observe the usual precautions.
Medical care is guaranteed. The European Health Insurance Card must
be presented for medical and hospital treatment.
If you are
dependent on certain medications, your first-aid kit should contain a
sufficient supply. However, keep in mind: in many countries there are
special regulations for the carriage of narcotic drugs (e.g. methadone)
and substances that are used to treat mental illnesses. If necessary,
check directly with the responsible foreign representation (embassy or
consulate) before departure. In Portugal, for example, the taking of
methadone is allowed.
The Portuguese are very warm people who are very proud of their country, their culture and their language. They also attach importance to a well-groomed appearance. Especially if you want to visit a church, please make sure to wear long pants and a chic top, and the women should generally not dress too tight. Give people the respect they need and they will get it back. The Portuguese are very helpful to tourists and are considered very cordial. Please note the traditions and customs in Portuguese society, because the culture and the Portuguese identity play a big role in everyday life. If possible, avoid comparing anything to Spain or raving about Spain, as the two countries, similar to siblings, are in a competitive struggle and relations are not always friendly.
In Portugal, access to communications has developed very rapidly.
Today, Internet usage is much higher than it was ten years ago. Mobile
phones are also one of the ex-libris of the population as there are 11
mobile phones for 10 Portuguese.
You can find numerous telephone
booths throughout the country. You can pay with prepaid cards (purchased
at CTT or Portugal Telecom stores), coins or with credit cards.
There are also many internet cafes and Wi-Fi points, especially in the
areas of large cities such as Lisbon and Porto. Fixed ADSL and fiber
access provides high data transfer speeds.
The three national
operators (MEO, NOS and Vodafone ) have roaming so you do not need to
buy a new card while you are in the country. These operators have 3G, 4G
and 5G technology.
The name Portugal comes from the port of Porto, created by the Roman Empire, in Latin Portus Cale (Latin portus means "port"). It is debatable what is meant by Cale. Some scholars think that Cale refers to the Gallaecians (ancient Greek Καλλαικοί Kallaikoi, Latin Callaici or Callaeci) – "port of the Gallaecians". Others think that it is a remnant of Latin calidus, which means "warm" – "warm harbor". Other historians have suggested that the Greeks were the first to settle there and that the ancient Greek word καλός kalós for "beautiful" was the eponym – "Beautiful harbor".Note. In the Middle Ages, Portus Cale became Portucale, later Portuguese, although in the 7th and 8th centuries the name referred only to the northern parts of the country, that is, the region between the Douro and Minho rivers.
It is estimated that Portugal was already inhabited 500,000 years ago
by Homo heidelbergensis and later by the Neanderthal man who emerged
from Homo heidelbergensis. The earliest evidence of a settlement of the
westernmost Europe by anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) comes
from a cave (Lapa do Picareiro) not far from the Atlantic coast in
central Portugal. Stone tools have been discovered that have been dated
to an age of 41,100 to 38,100 years (cal BP). Rock carvings from the
Paleolithic period, which are the most important of their kind in the
world, have been dated to an age between 22,000 and 8,000 years before
today. Although the transition to the Neolithic period took place late,
copper processing prevailed particularly quickly, especially in southern
Portugal. The first trade relations with other regions of Europe are
documented for this time. From 800 BC Phoenicians founded trading bases
in the Algarve. From about 600 BC, Greeks founded several small
settlements in the eastern and northeastern area. From the 6th to the
3rd century at the earliest. B.C. Celts immigrated in several waves, who
mixed with the Iberians. In addition to the Celts, the tribe of the
Lusitanians is called, which was considered particularly defensive to
the Romans and was to become the eponym for the country in Latin. The
mixing of the Celts with the native culture created the Celtiberians.
From 450 BC, the southern Iberian Peninsula was colonized by
Carthage. By 206 BC, the Romans managed to drive out the Carthaginians.
In the course of the Second Punic War, in which numerous Lusitanian
mercenaries from Carthage were used, a counter-invasion of Rome on the
Iberian Peninsula took place and thus Romanization took place. By the
Romans, the territory of Portugal was first administered as the province
of Hispania ulterior, from the reign of Augustus under the name
Lusitania, which, in addition to most of present-day Portugal, included
other territories in the west of present-day Spain. In northern and
northeastern Portugal, the Roman conquerors met with strong resistance;
it was not until 19 BC that the region was considered subjugated. After
that there was a strong Romanization, cities on the Roman model, Roman
roads, villages and mines were created, with the settlers the vulgar
Latin came to the country, from which the Portuguese language later
arose, and also Christianity. The Roman rule ended in the Migration
period; Suebi (from 409), Alans, Vandals and especially Visigoths (from
416) invaded and founded short-lived empires on the territory of
present-day Portugal. Only the Suevi could last longer, but their
kingdom around Braga was founded in 456 by Theodoric II. and destroyed a
second time in 585 by Leovigild.
In 711, a Berber army led by Tāriq ibn Ziyād defeated the army of
Visigoth King Roderich. By 716, the entire territory of the Visigoth
Empire was under the control of the Umayyads, Lusitania probably as
early as 713. Al-Andalus and especially the emirate, later Caliphate of
Córdoba was partly led by very capable and successful rulers such as Abd
ar-Rahman I, Abd ar-Rahman III or al-Hakam II and was one of the most
progressive empires of its time. After its disintegration into several
taifas, most of Lusitania belonged to the taifa of Badajoz, the extreme
south to Seville and to other petty kingdoms. There was an immigration
of Berber settlers, due to climatic conditions, especially to the south
of the peninsula. The Moorish influence on the culture and language of
Portugal was strong and lasting.
The kingdom of Asturias was of
no interest to the Moors. It was from here that the Christian
reconquista of the territories of the later Portugal began in the 9th
century. In 868, during a period of weakness of the Emirate of Córdoba,
Portucale was conquered (Presúria), in 879 Coimbra. With the Presúria of
Portucale by Vímara Peres, a "first" county of Portucale (Condado
Portucalense) developed in the area around Porto as part of the Kingdom
of Asturias-León. Descendants from the family of Vímara Peres ruled in
this region until 1071; it came to the reconstruction of Braga and the
construction of the fortress of Guimarães. in 1071, a revolt of the last
count of Portucale, Nuno Mendes, against Garcia, who was appointed king
of Galicia and Portugal in 1065, was put down. The king of León
enfeoffed Henry of Burgundy with Portucale and Coimbra around 1095. A
"second" county of Portucale, also called Condado Portucalense, was
created, which led directly to the foundation of the independent Kingdom
of Portugal.
Already the son of Henry of Burgundy, Alfonso I,
with the support of the local petty nobility (infanções), rebelled in
1127 after Henry's death against his own mother, who had married a
Galician prince. After the Battle of Ourique was won, he had gained so
much prestige that he accepted the title of king in 1143 with the
consent of Alfonso VII of León. In 1166, León gave up the claim of
supremacy over Portucale, thereby gaining formal independence. The
rulers of the House of Burgundy tried to expand their territory to the
south, the goal of which may have been to gain power over the whole of
Lusitania. But Castile prevented this. By 1250, the reconquista was
completed with the conquest of the Algarve, with the strong
participation of foreign knights and orders of chivalry.
In 1383,
the House of Burgundy in Portugal died out. A non-marital descendant,
John of Avis proclaimed himself king, was able to fend off Castilian
claims to the Portuguese throne at the Battle of Aljubarrota (1385) and
founded the second Portuguese dynasty, the House of Avis. Under the Avis
kings (especially Emanuel I - he ruled from 1495 to 1521), Portugal rose
to become a leading European trading and maritime power. Henry the
Navigator (1394-1460) initiated voyages of discovery on the West African
coast, which were at the beginning of the establishment of the
Portuguese colonial empire, first in Africa, later in South America
(Brazil) as well as Asia (Portuguese India, Ceylon, Malacca, Macau,
etc.) and European expansion. The country became a great power and one
of the richest nations in Europe due to the income, especially from the
Indian trade. There was also a cultural heyday (Luís de Camões).
In 1580, the House of Avis died out, Portugal fell to the Spanish
Habsburgs (Iberian Union) for dynastic reasons. The Spanish ruled until
1640; Portugal lost its independence, descended into a Spanish province
and lost parts of its colonial empire. In 1640, the Duke of Braganza led
a noble revolt against Spanish rule and proclaimed himself king as John
IV. He founded the penultimate Portuguese dynasty, the House of
Braganza. In foreign and economic policy, the country became
increasingly dependent on England (Methuenvertrag, 1703). in 1755 an
earthquake destroyed large parts of the capital Lisbon. Under the First
Minister and reformer Marquês de Pombal, the city was rebuilt and the
country was transformed into an enlightened absolutist state with
sometimes drastic methods. In 1761 there was an attack on the country by
Spain and France, Pombal gave Wilhelm Graf zu Schaumburg-Lippe the
supreme command over the combined Portuguese and British troops. Wilhelm
repelled the attacks and thus secured the independence of Portugal. In
the following years, he profoundly reformed the Portuguese army and had
the fortress of Elvas built on the Spanish border. in 1807, Napoleonic
troops occupied the country; the royal family fled to Brazil. After the
French were expelled with British help, the liberal revolution occurred,
the country received a constitution for the first time in its history
(1821). The subsequent struggle between supporters of absolutism and
supporters of a constitutional monarchy was decided only in 1834 by the
victory of the latter in the Miguelist War. On the 7th. In September
1822, Brazil gained its independence under Emperor Pedro I.
The period after the end of the Miguelist War was marked by the
confrontation between right-wing and left-wing liberals (cartists and
Setembrists). in 1853, the house of Braganza died out in a direct line
with Queen Maria II, and through the queen's marriage to Ferdinand II of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the Portuguese branch of this German noble house
took the throne (until 1910). The final phase of the monarchy was
characterized by great poverty, low education (80 percent of the
Portuguese were illiterate), general economic problems (state bankruptcy
in 1891) and Republican uprisings that expanded into state crises. Under
João Franco, the royalties were further increased and the prestige of
the monarchy suffered exacerbated by the visible contradiction between
broken state finances on the one hand and the luxurious, extravagant
lifestyle of the ruling family on the other. in 1908, the King Charles
I. and his son, heir to the throne Ludwig Philipp, was shot during a
carriage ride. Only the son Manuel survived the assassination attempt.
On October 3, 1910, the Republican deputy Miguel Bombarda was
murdered under unclear circumstances. There were riots in Lisbon that
night. A quickly formed provisional government proclaimed the Republic
on October 5, 1910; King Manuel II fled into English exile.
In
1914, the young Republic of Portugal pledged material support and the
deployment of its own troops to Great Britain. Although officially
neutral, the Portuguese government justified its participation in the
First World War with an old alliance agreement between the two
countries, which had been renewed in 1912.
"By participating in
the First World War on the side of the British, Portugal tried to
protect its African colonies (Angola and Mozambique), which had been
part of a secret agreement between the British and the Germans in 1898.
In addition, Portugal wanted to underline its entry into the ranks of
European nations. Participation at the international level was perceived
as a means of strengthening national unity. Finally, the legitimacy of
the republican regime, which at that time was threatened by monarchist
movements and great economic difficulties, was to be consolidated.
The British General Staff was initially content with the material
assistance of Portugal. The leadership remained skeptical about whether
the use of the young Portuguese Republic in the hostilities would really
benefit the Allied forces. However, the growing logistical problems of
the Allies prompted Great Britain to request the seizure of all German
ships anchored in Portuguese ports in December 1915. The government
complied with this request on 24 February 1916, after which Germany
declared war on Portugal on 9 March.“
In March 1916, the country
entered the First World War on the side of the Entente. Portugal
mobilized 56,500 soldiers at times. In the Fourth Battle of Flanders,
the expeditionary corps lost almost 7500 men (fallen, missing, prisoners
of war and wounded) in a single day during a German offensive.
In
the so-called First Republic (until 1926), general political instability
and chaotic conditions prevailed. It was characterized by monarchist and
communist uprisings, coup attempts (among others of the Sidónio Pais,
1917) and weak, often changing governments without a parliamentary
majority.
In 1926, the military staged a coup and ended the first
republic. Among the military, a civilian, António de Oliveira Salazar,
Minister of Finance from 1928, Prime Minister from 1932, rose to the
highest power. From 1933 he founded the "Estado Novo", the new state, an
authoritarian entity with fascist tendencies, with a Unity Party
(National Union), state Youth and secret police (PIDE). The
Catholic-authoritarian and anti-democratic ideology of the dictator
pursued the project of a "estate state".
According to Decree No.
19694 of May 5, 1931, women were given the right to vote and stand for
election on the condition that they had completed at least secondary
school; men, on the contrary, had to be able to read and write only.
According to Adams, this clause caused a very limited women's suffrage
for women with high education. With the Election Law D.L. 24631 of
November 6, 1934, everyone who could read and write received the
national right to vote. However, in the case of elections to certain
local bodies, some restrictions on women remained in force until 1968.
In foreign policy, Salazar built on ties with Great Britain,
sympathized with the national Spanish forces in the Spanish Civil War
and skillfully maneuvered between the blocs. During the Second World
War, the country remained neutral, supplied both sides with the
important raw material tungsten and became a playground for secret
agents of many warring parties. Salazar, who expected an Allied victory
from the very beginning and had decisively influenced Franco in the
sense of Spanish neutrality, finally allowed the Allies to establish
military bases in the Azores in the autumn of 1943.
Portugal is a
founding member of NATO, created in 1949. From 1960 – the African Year
when 18 countries became independent - the colonial War began, which was
fought with great severity in Africa (Angola, Mozambique,
Guinea-Bissau). The attempt by officer Henrique Galvão to bring down the
Salazar system by hijacking the passenger ship Santa Maria in the
Caribbean in January 1961 failed, although the Santa Maria affair
attracted international attention.
In 1968, Salazar was forced to
resign due to health problems. His successor, Marcelo Caetano, could not
decide on fundamental reforms. Due to the colonial war, Portugal was
increasingly isolated in foreign policy, the costs of the war led to
rising public debt and inflation.
Leading military leaders
realized that the colonial War could not be won militarily for Portugal.
Due to the inability of the government to find a political solution to
the problem, left-wing military men staged a coup on the night of April
25, 1974. The general dissatisfaction of the population with the
dictatorship, exacerbated by the onset of the economic crisis (triggered
by the first oil crisis in 1973), led to the fact that large sections of
the population expressed solidarity with the coup officers.
The
general popular uprising, the Carnation Revolution, quickly brought the
Estado Novo to an end. The hallmark of the revolution in Portugal was
red carnations, which were put by the population to the insurgent
soldiers in their rifle barrels.
On May 14, 1974, a new Electoral
Law was adopted (Law 3/74, Article 4, number 1). According to Decree-Law
No. 621-A/74, Article 1.1 of November 15, 1974, Portuguese citizens who
were 18 years of age or older on February 28, 1975 were eligible to vote
for the Constituent Assembly. For the first time in Portuguese history,
universal suffrage was thus recognized and was exercised the following
year: in April 1975, the members of the Constituent Assembly that
drafted the 1976 Constitution were elected. This was published on 2. It
was proclaimed in June 1976 and thus constitutionally guaranteed
equality of the right to vote for women and men for all elections.
The new rulers released the Portuguese colonies to independence
(1974/1975), Macau followed in 1999.
The first period after the revolution was marked by the confrontation
between a rather conservative current (General Spínola) and a socialist
wing (captain Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho) within the MFA (Movimento das
Forças Armadas – Movement of the Armed Forces), the association of the
coup officers. At first it looked as if the socialist current was
winning, nationalizations and land reform were coming. The 1976
Constitution defined the transition to socialism as a state goal.
When the more moderate General Eanes was surprisingly able to
prevail against Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho in the first presidential
elections under the new constitution in 1976, the course was set for a
return of the country to a parliamentary democracy of a Western European
nature. Eanes and the leader of the Socialist Party Mário Soares (head
of government from 1976 to 1978 and 1983 to 1985, president of the State
from 1986 to 1996) finally led the country to the European Community in
1986.
In 1979, for the first time since the Carnation Revolution, a
right-of-center political group won the parliamentary elections again,
the governments led by Francisco Sá Carneiro and Francisco Pinto
Balsemão. The government was able to agree with the socialist opposition
on a constitutional amendment that removed the socialist remnants that
had been written into the Constitution after the Carnation Revolution.
The constitutional amendment, which came into force in 1982, replaced
the Revolutionary Council, which had been important until then, with a
constitutional court on the model of other democratic states. In 1985,
Aníbal Cavaco Silva became Prime Minister. His conservative Partido
Social Democrata (PSD) won a landslide victory in the 1987 elections;
for the first time, a party won an absolute majority. Cavaco Silva
remained Prime Minister until 1995. He pursued a neoliberal economic
policy and withdrew the nationalizations from the time of the Carnation
Revolution. From 1995 to 2002, the Socialists again formed the
government with António Guterres.
The parliamentary elections of
17 March 2002 saw a new shift to the right. With a turnout of 62.3
percent, the conservative PSD under José Manuel Durão Barroso achieved a
relative majority of 40.1 percent, followed by the Socialist Partido
Socialista and the right-wing conservative People's Party CDS-PP with
37.9 and 8.8 percent, respectively. With the latter, Barroso formed a
coalition government, with the populist chairman of the CDS-PP, Paulo
Portas, taking over the post of Minister of Defense and also the areas
of justice and labor and social affairs went to the CDS-PP. However, the
Socialists continuously provided the president of the country, since the
socialist Jorge Sampaio succeeded Soares in 1996.
In July 2004,
Barroso was nominated by the European Council to succeed Romano Prodi as
President of the Commission of the European Union. His successor as
prime minister was Pedro Santana Lopes, who was only able to rule for a
short time, as President Sampaio dissolved the parliament prematurely in
November and called new elections for February 2005, in which the
Partido Socialista won an absolute majority of the parliamentary seats
with 121 out of 230 seats for the first time in history. Its leading
candidate, José Sócrates, became the country's new prime minister on 12
March 2005.
On 22 January 2006, some 8.9 million Portuguese
elected a new president. The previous president, the socialist Jorge
Sampaio, was not allowed to stand for election after two terms. The
centre-right candidate and former head of government Aníbal Cavaco Silva
(PSD) already prevailed against five candidates from the left in the
first ballot with an absolute majority of 50.6 percent with a turnout of
62.6 percent. He was supported by an alliance of PSD and CDS-PP. The
66-year-old economics professor, who was the architect of the Portuguese
economic upswing in the years 1985 to 1995, thus became the first
bourgeois president in Portugal since the Carnation Revolution of 1974.
He was inaugurated for five years on March 9, 2006. Cavaco Silva was
confirmed in office on 23 January 2011.
The drastic effects of
the global economic and financial crisis dominated the election campaign
in the 2009 parliamentary elections. Although the ruling Socialists lost
significantly in electoral votes and lost their absolute majority, they
managed to assert themselves as the party with the most voters. Thus,
the government of Sócrates also remained in office.
After the
government's savings concept had not found a majority in parliament,
Sócrates submitted his resignation on 23 March 2011. In the subsequent
new elections, the Socialists suffered a clear electoral defeat.
Consequently, Pedro Passos Coelho, chairman of the liberal-conservative
Social Democratic Party (PSD), which won with almost 40% of the votes,
was appointed the new Prime Minister of Portugal on 15 June 2011. He led
a coalition government of PSD and CDS-PP, which had a solid majority
with 132 out of 230 parliamentary seats.
After the parliamentary
elections on October 4, 2015, the previously ruling party alliance PàF
remained the strongest force, but lost the absolute majority. The
left-wing opposition parties PS, BE and CDU, together with 124 of the
230 seats in parliament, hold a majority capable of governing. On 20. In
October 2015, António Costa (PS) told President Anibal Cavaco Silva that
he wanted to form a left-wing government. Cavaco Silva, however, blocked
the attempts of the Socialists and communists to conclude a government
alliance for the time being, and once again appointed the incumbent
bourgeois-conservative Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho as head of
government. In a televised speech to the nation on the evening of
October 22, 2015, Cavaco Silva justified this with regard to the
European Union and the euro, "financial institutions, investors and the
markets". On 26. In November 2015, António Costa was appointed Prime
Minister and promised a departure from the harsh austerity policy in
compliance with the requirements of the European Union. On January 24,
2016, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa (PSD) was elected President of the State.
After the 2019 parliamentary elections, he formed a minority government
on October 26, 2019, and a sole government after the 2022 parliamentary
elections. In June 2021, Portugal was the first country whose economic
recovery plan was approved by the European Commission after the economic
downturn due to the restrictions resulting from corona. Investments in
environmentally friendly production processes and digitization, as well
as in health, housing and infrastructure should become possible. On
March 21, 2024, the conservative Luís Montenegro became Prime Minister
of Portugal.
Portugal is sometimes called the country of poets. In Portuguese
literature, poetry has always had a stronger influence than prose. In
the Middle Ages, when the Portuguese nation was formed, poetry was
widespread in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. Excellent epic
and lyrical works were created. While the most famous classical poets
are Luís de Camões and Fernando Pessoa, there are a number of
lesser-known artists who have a significant influence on modern
Portuguese literature.
Prose developed later than poetry, and it
was not until the 14th century that it emerged in the form of chronicles
or the description of the lives of saints. Here the most famous
representative is Fernão Lopes; he wrote a chronicle of the regencies of
three kings of his time. For him, the most important thing was the
accuracy of the presentation, as well as a vivid description. Portuguese
modern literature is best known internationally, especially with the
works of José Maria Eça de Queiroz and the 1998 Nobel Prize winner for
Literature, José Saramago.
Women are also to be found among the
important contemporary writers of the country, especially Sophia de
Mello Breyner Andresen, Lídia Jorge and Agustina Bessa-Luís. Among the
young authors, José Luís Peixoto has recently been able to make a name
for himself internationally.
Cinema has a long tradition in Portugal. Internationally, the
country's sophisticated auteur film in particular enjoys a good
reputation among cinema enthusiasts, but award-winning directors, such
as João Botelho or João Canijo, are rather little known to the general
population, even in Portugal. If the film industry is also determined
here by the major international productions and the multiplex cinemas,
there is still a lively film club movement and a number of different
film festivals in the country, which produce committed new directors
such as the very different Miguel Gomes, Jorge Pelicano or Fernando
Fragata, as well as up-and-coming actors with names such as Ana Moreira,
Diogo Infante or Lúcia Moniz.
The most famous Portuguese director
to be mentioned here is Manoel de Oliveira († April 2, 2015), who was
also the oldest still working director in the world at over 100 years
(born in 1908), and the last living one who was already shooting silent
films at the time. The most famous actors are Maria de Medeiros, who was
the film partner of Bruce Willis in pulp fiction, and Joaquim de Almeida
with his numerous Hollywood roles.
The most important form of music in Portugal is fado, which can be very melancholic and has contributed to the stereotype of the melancholic Portuguese (compared to the temperamental Spaniards). This music is closely related to Saudade (about: longing) and was probably created by mixing the songs of Portuguese sailors with the rhythms of African slaves. Here, two stylistic forms are distinguished, namely the more varied, folk-oriented fado of Lisbon, and the academic fado of Coimbra, sung only by men. The most internationally known fado song was April in Portugal, which was released in several hundred versions worldwide and was written by Raul Ferrão, and also combines the Fado Coimbras with the Lissabons. Amália Rodrigues was the most important fado artist, after her death several musicians stepped out of her shadow and created new forms of fado, some of which have only the saudade in common with the original fado, but some of which deliberately adhere to traditional patterns of fado. In recent years, the number of fado releases and its public presence has increased again, due to the successes of young singers such as Mariza, Camané or Ana Moura. In the former colonies of Portugal, fado has also spread and evolved into the Cape Verdean morna of a Cesária évora and the Brazilian choro. One of the well-known groups influenced by fado in the German-speaking world today is Madredeus with the singer Teresa Salgueiro.
Since the Middle Ages, church music has been very important in
Portugal within the framework of strong Portuguese Catholicism and
reached its peak in the Renaissance. In the field of spiritual vocal
polyphony, Portugal had a remarkable generation of Portuguese composers
who shaped the musical history of Portugal in the 16th and 17th
centuries: Estêvão de Brito (c. 1575-1641), Filipe de Magalhães (c.
1571-1652), Duarte Lobo (1565-1646) and Manuel Cardoso (1566-1650). This
so-called generation of the polifonists of Évora represents the heyday
of church music in Portugal. The Baroque composer António Pereira da
Costa (c. 1697-1770), who worked in Madeira, wrote the only known
Concerti grossi in Portuguese musical history.
Portugal has no
internationally significant composers in the field of classical music.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was individual composers such as
Carlos Seixas, João Domingo's Bomtempo, José Vianna da Motta or Luís de
Freitas Branco who wrote important works for Portugal, but did not
achieve any significant international attention. On the other hand,
Luísa Todi (La Todi, 1753-1833) was one of the most famous singers of
her time in Europe.
In the 20th century, the tradition of
Portuguese classical music was continued by composers such as Emmanuel
Nunes, António Victorino de Almeida or Eurico Carrapatoso. The tenor
Lomelino Silva achieved international fame in the 1920s and 1930s, but
then fell into oblivion. At the end of the 20th century. At the
beginning of the twentieth century, Portugal had internationally
important composers: Emmanuel Nunes, who held a teaching position in
Paris, Jorge Peixinho, who can be described as the most important figure
of Portuguese contemporary music of his generation, and Joao Pedro
Oliveira with teaching assignments in Portugal and Brazil.
Maria
Joao Pires, Mário Laginha, Pedro Burmester, António Pinho Vargas and
Bernardo Sassetti became important modern composers and performers
across national borders, both in classical music and jazz.
The
jazz club Hot Clube de Portugal in Lisbon is considered the oldest still
existing jazz club in Europe. With a number of jazz festivals and
numerous musicians, the jazz scene is still alive in the country, with
names such as the trumpeter Sei Miguel, the bassist Carlos Bica, the
guitarist Manuel Mota, or the well-known singer Maria João. In free jazz
and new improvisational music, Portugal has a number of active
musicians, such as Carlos Zingaro, Ernesto Rodrigues, Carlos Maria
Trindade or Vítor Rua.
The former Madredeus musician Rodrigo Leão
was able to make a name for himself with his modern-classical
compositions in a contemporary yet traditional guise both in his
homeland and internationally. The accordion quartet Danças Ocultas also
received some international attention. Portugal also won the 62nd
Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev in 2017 with singer Salvador Sobral.
From the time of the fascist Estado Novo under Salazar comes a
critical songwriting tradition. The most famous representatives of this
protest movement were José Afonso (often called Zeca) and Adriano
Correia de Oliveira, while representatives of the movement such as José
Mário Branco and especially Sérgio Godinho are still active in the music
scene today. José Afonso wrote the song Grândola, Vila Morena, which
became a political symbol throughout the country on the night of the
Carnation Revolution and beyond.
The musical traditions of the
different regions are also constantly revived and interpreted in a
contemporary way, often by combining different musical styles. Artists
such as Trovante, Júlio Pereira or Rão Kyao, a composer, musician and
singer of Portuguese music and fado, has made a name for himself by
incorporating musical influences from Indian music (Goa, former
Portuguese colony), from Macau (former Portuguese colony), from the Arab
world and from North Africa.
The pop music genre, which was introduced in the 1960s mainly with
beat bands such as Quinteto Académico, Conjunto Académico João Paulo and
especially the Sheiks in Portugal, has been able to rise to the defining
music of the youth since the 1980s, alongside rock music, with names
such as Heróis do Mar, the Dolphins, or the eccentric singer António
Variações, who died early. The band The Gift has caused a comparable
stir among music lovers in the country in recent years with their
multi-layered pop and their Amália Rodrigues tribute project Hoje, as
well as Silence 4 and their now solo singer David Fonseca. The first
Eurodance group in Portugal, "Santamaria", also brought technobeats to
the discos.
The rock and blues singer, guitarist and composer Rui
Veloso was able to make a name for himself beyond the borders of the
country. In addition to well-known groups such as GNR or UHF, the
undisputedly most popular rock band in the country are the Xutos &
Pontapés, founded in 1978 as a punk band, while Moonspell is the most
internationally known metal band from Portugal. Bands such as the
psychobilly band Tédio Boys or the punk band Censurados have formed some
of the most influential formations of the diverse underground and
independent scenes in the country. Mata-Ratos are the oldest, still
existing band of the Portuguese punk scene.
Each region of
Portugal has its own folklore style (Ranchos Folclóricos). Projects such
as the pop bands Sétima Legião or Sitiados combine these with
contemporary pop styles. The Portuguese music and dance tradition has
mixed in Brazil with the traditions of the slaves from present-day
Angola to form the samba and is also popular in this mixture in
Portugal. The kuduro is especially popular among Angolan immigrants.
This is a musical genre, which includes influences of the Sungura and
the Afro Zouk, among others. The rhythm is fast and hard. The widespread
kizomba is a hybrid form of the Angolan semba and zouk. These are mostly
romantic songs with correspondingly slow rhythms. These two genres of
music (but the kizomba in particular) are popular among the young
generation of African immigrants. In recent years, this musical genre
has become widespread among young people of culturally Portuguese
origin.
In addition, the hip hop tuga has developed in Portugal,
a version of hip hop adapted to Portugal, which is popular among young
people. The most famous representatives were Da Weasel and Sam the Kid.
Reggae has also become more popular in Portugal after the success of the
group Kussondulola, with today's performers such as Richie Campbell,
Mercado Negro or Freddy Locks.
In the field of artistic dance, Portugal has been quite successful since the early 1990s and, along with Russia, is one of the most important countries in Europe in this field. Numerous dancers and choreographers have achieved fame throughout Europe or worldwide: Rui Horta, João Fiadeiro, Clara Andermatt. Modern and innovative forms are often used, new styles are developed. Portugal is regularly involved in the training of young dancers. The dance culture in Portugal is called Nova Dança Portuguesa.
Portuguese artists never achieved great fame in painting and
sculpture. This was due to various reasons: on the one hand, there were
no new, innovative techniques and forms from the country. Often, many
paintings and sculptures were created for the glory of God only for
certain monasteries or churches, without the names of the artists being
known (who often deliberately did not give their names). In addition,
the often difficult pronunciation of Portuguese names, as well as the
destruction of art by the earthquake of 1755 and by Napoleonic troops at
the beginning of the 19th century, played an important role. This is a
crucial role in the twentieth century. Nevertheless, Portugal has also
produced many painters. Today's painting is oriented to the tendencies
of modern painting.
In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, it
was often foreign painters who worked in Portugal, for example from
Flanders, but who were not famous painters, but could then work in
Portugal because they had been displaced by the great masters of their
country. Important names from this period were Nuno Gonçalves, Gregorio
Lopes and Grão Vasco.
Baroque, Rococo and the beginning of the
19th century were covered by painters such as Domingos de Sequeira,
Vieira Portuense or Francisco Augusto Metrass.
In the 20th
century, many painters came: Paula Rego, Almada Negreiros, Mário Eloy,
Santa Rita Pintor, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso
and many others.
Architectural styles cover almost all epochs of European art history.
Monasteries, churches, castles, palaces and state institutions were
often built according to the styles prevailing in Europe, such as Gothic
or neoclassicism. The architect Álvaro Siza Vieira received the Pritzker
Prize, as did his compatriot Eduardo Souto de Moura. Other well-known
architects were or are Raoul Mesnier de Ponsard (an Eiffel student),
Miguel Ventura Terra, Tomas Taveira.
In the decoration (building
decoration), Portugal was able to achieve its own, national note,
especially through Manuelism and Azulejo art.
Portuguese cuisine is diverse, in some respects it follows the
Iberian tradition, but in addition, it absorbed many elements from the
colonized territories. After the Moorish rule over Portugal, many North
African influences were also preserved, including the heavy use of
sugar, cinnamon, spices and egg yolks.
The bacalhau is considered
the national dish of Portugal. Since the 13th century, this species of
dried and salted fish has played an important role in the diet of the
Portuguese. Today it is said that in Portuguese cuisine there is a
bacalhau recipe for every day of the year. Sardines, the cheapest food
in the country in the 16th century, are still a traditional food today.
For example, grilled sardines (sardinhas assadas) are very popular,
especially in summer. Numerous other dishes such as caldeirada, Amêijoas
à Bulhão Pato, Rissóis de Camarão or Arroz de marisco underline the
importance of fish and other marine products in Portuguese cuisine.
Also typical are soups such as Caldo verde, a kale potato soup from
the Portuguese cabbage Couve-galega, which is typically served with broa
(corn bread) and chouriço, or the sopa alentejana with bread, egg,
coriander, garlic and olive oil. Meat was eaten very little in the
Middle Ages of Portugal, but sausages (enchidos) are still common and
there are some famous meat dishes such as Cozido à portuguesa or the
popular fast dish Francesinha. Frango assado (Grilled chicken),
especially seasoned with spicy piri-piri, is today a widespread dish
that came to Portugal from the African colonies. There is also a long
tradition in the cheese factory, worth mentioning are Queijo do Pico,
Queijo Serra da Estrela or Queijo de Azeitão.
Sweets occupy a
very significant place in Portugal. The famous pastéis de nata (Pastéis
de Belém) are a specialty from Belém and have spread over Macau to large
parts of Southeast Asia in recent years. Some of the many other desserts
are the Pastéis de Tentúgal, the Ovos moles de Aveiro, or the Bolo rei,
which is especially popular at Christmas. Especially in autumn,
traditionally roasted chestnuts are sold at small street stalls.
Portugal is known for its wine. Since Roman times, Portugal has been
associated with the god of wine and festivals, Bacchus/Dionysus. Some
Portuguese wines are among the best in the world. A well-known wine
specialty is the sparkling-moussing Vinho Verde. The port wine is world
famous, while another well-known fortified wine from Portugal comes from
the island of Madeira, the Madeira. In addition, there are also some
local beer breweries.
In June, festivals are held throughout Portugal in honor of the three
folk saints (Santos Populares). These three saints are Anthony, John and
Peter. It is celebrated with wine, água-pé (most), traditional bread
with sardines, street processions and dances, weddings, fires and
fireworks as well as a lot of good mood. Particularly well-known are the
street parades, the Marchas Populares, the capital of Lisbon, where
dance groups from the historic districts compete against each other.
Santo António is celebrated on the night of June 12-13, especially
in Lisbon (where this saint was born and lived), where a kind of street
carnival (Marchas Populares) is held. On these days there are weddings,
the Casamentos de Santo António. The most popular saint is São João (St.
St. John), for which St. John's Day is celebrated mainly in Porto and
Braga, with sardines and caldo Verde (a traditional soup). In honor of
São Pedro is celebrated on June 28 and 29, especially in Póvoa de Varzim
and Barcelos, where these festivals are dedicated to the sea. There will
be a fire (fogeiras) and a street carnival.
Portugal has a 1224 km long border with Spain to the east and north
and coast to the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south.
North
The north of Portugal has a relatively cool and humid climate and
consists of two landscapes: The Minho in the northwest, due to the
highly developed industry, is one of the most densely populated areas of
the country. The largest cities of the Minho are Braga, Guimarães, Vila
Nova de Famalicão, Barcelos and Viana do Castelo. The Minho is called
the green garden of Portugal because of its climate and the
comparatively lush vegetation. On the slopes of the numerous river
valleys, mainly wine is grown, which is further processed into Vinho
Verde. In addition, many vegetables thrive. The natural vegetation is a
mixture of the flora of the temperate climate zone and the subtropical
flora; depending on the altitude, there are oaks, chestnuts, pines and
olive trees.
To the northeast lies Trás-os-Montes (Behind the
mountains). This side of northern Portugal facing away from the sea is
very mountainous, has very cold winters and very hot summers. The
vegetation is significantly less lush than in the Minho and becomes more
sparse towards the border to Spain. What both landscapes have in common
is that their mountain massifs, such as Marão or Peneda-Gerês, are
intersected by numerous rivers such as the Rio Minho or the Rio Douro.
The Peneda-Gerês National Park is located in the north of Portugal.
There are still remnants of natural forests there, in which in
particular the evergreen holm oak is found. Important cities in the
northeast are Vila Real, Bragança, Mirandela and Chaves.
Centre
The Centro region, also called Central Portugal, is mostly hilly to
mountainous and has a considerable mountain range with winter sports
facilities with the Serra da Estrela. At 1993 m, the Torre is the
highest mountain in continental Portugal. The most important landscapes
are the Beiras, which are located in the east of the region and where
the cities such as Castelo Branco, Guarda and Covilhã are located, the
Ribatejo, which is located in the southwest of the region, via the
Lisbon metropolitan area, where cities such as Santarém, Tomar or
Entroncamento are located. The Estremadura is the western landscape of
the region; there are the cities of Leiria, Caldas da Rainha and Torres
Vedras. The entire region is very fertile and has a climate favorable
for viticulture. The tradition of viticulture dates back to Roman times.
In addition, cereals, rice, sunflowers and vegetables are grown. The
region is divided by the Tagus River. Since the construction of numerous
dams, there have been hardly any floods, unlike before.
Alentejo
plains
The Alentejo is a dry and hot region of the country. The
surface of the entire region is flat to hilly. The region is known as
the former granary of Portugal, today it is sparsely populated and
characterized by migration from the villages to the cities of the region
or other regions of the country; extensive grain fields with olive
groves and cork oaks dominate the landscape. Wine and sunflowers are
also grown. The meadows are used for sheep breeding and are strewn with
flowers in spring. The prolonged dry periods, which are to be mitigated
with the construction of dams, have contributed to the economic decline.
The planting of fast-growing eucalyptus trees is controversial. These
pose an increased risk of forest fires, but the cultivated areas have
nevertheless increased. The southern coastal regions are often overgrown
with pine forests. In addition, there are numerous palm species, of
which only the dwarf palm is native. In the south-west of the region, in
the district of Odemira, various types of fruits and vegetables are
grown, which grow all year round and are partly exported to other
European countries.
Algarve
The Algarve is the southern coast
of the country. It is a popular holiday destination with its pretty
towns, the steep coasts and the sandy beaches with crystal blue water.
Over the years, the Algarve has become increasingly popular and tourism
has increased. The largest cities in the region are Portimão, Faro,
Loulé, Quarteira and Lagos. The defining river Rio Guadiana forms the
border with Spain twice a longer distance. Numerous succulent plants are
adapted to the great summer heat.
Isles
Portugal also includes
the island groups Madeira (Wood Island) and Azores (Hawk Islands) in the
Atlantic Ocean. They are, except for the Azores island of Santa Maria,
volcanic islands. The Madeira archipelago off the coast of Africa has
partly tropical and partly subtropical vegetation. The highest mountain
in Portugal (Ponta do Pico, 2351 m) is located on the Azores island of
Pico.
The most important rivers of Portugal are the Tagus, which
originates in Spain under the name Tagus, the Douro (Spanish Duero) and
the Mondego, the latter flowing only through Portugal.
Portugal has a Mediterranean climate, Csa in the south and Csb in the
North, according to the Köppen climate classification. Portugal is one
of the mildest European countries: the average annual temperature in
mainland Portugal ranges from 13 °C in the mountainous northern interior
to 18 °C in the South, in the Guadiana Basin. Summers are mild in the
northern highlands of the country and in the coastal region of the far
north and center. Autumn and winter are typically windy, rainy and cool,
being colder in the northern and central districts of the country, in
which negative temperatures occur during the coldest months. However, in
the southernmost cities of Portugal, temperatures only very occasionally
drop below 0 °c, staying at 5 °C in most cases.
Normally, the
spring and summer months are Sunny and temperatures are high during the
dry months of July and August, occasionally exceeding 40 °C in much of
the country, on extreme days, and more frequently in the interior of the
Alentejo.
The average annual total rainfall varies from just over
3 000 mm in the northern mountains to less than 600 mm in southern areas
of Alentejo. The country has about 2 500-3 200 hours of sunshine per
year, and an average of 4-6 hours in winter and 10-12 hours in summer,
with higher values in the southeast and lower in the northwest.
Snow occurs regularly in four districts in the north of the country
(Guarda, Bragança, Vila Real and Viseu) and decreases its occurrence
towards the south, until it becomes non-existent in most of the Algarve.
In winter, temperatures below -10 °C and snowfalls occur with some
frequency in restricted points, such as Serra da Estrela, Serra do Gerês
and Serra de Montesinho, and it can snow from October to May in these
places.
The climate and geographical diversity shaped the Portuguese flora.
With regard to Portuguese forests, Pine (especially the species Pinus
pinaster and Pinus pinea), Chestnut (Castanea sativa), cork oak (Quercus
suber), holm oak (Quercus ilex), Portuguese Oak (Quercus faginea) and
eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) are widespread for economic reasons.
The mammal fauna is very varied and includes the fox, badger,
Iberian lynx, Iberian wolf, wild goat (Capra pyrenaica), the wild cat
(Felis silvestris), the Hare, The Weasel, the sacarabos, Genet and
occasionally brown bear (near the Minho River, near Peneda-Gerês) and
many others. Portugal is an important stopping place for migratory birds
moving between Europe and Africa, in places like Cabo de São Vicente or
Serra de Monchique, where thousands of birds can be seen flying from
Europe to Africa in autumn or in the opposite direction in Spring.
Portugal has about 600 species of birds, among which 235 nest and almost
every year there are new records.
Portugal has more than 100
species of freshwater fish ranging from the European giant catfish
(International Tagus Natural Park) to small endemic species that live
only in small lakes (west zone, for example). Some of these rare and
specific species are highly threatened due to habitat loss, pollution
and droughts. Portuguese marine waters are one of the richest in
biodiversity in the world. Marine species number in the thousands and
include sardines (Sardina pilchardus), tuna and Atlantic mackerel.
In Portugal it is also possible to observe the phenomenon of
resurgence, especially on the West Coast, which makes the sea extremely
rich in nutrients and biodiversity. Portugal's protected areas include
one National Park, thirteen natural parks (the most recent created in
2005), nine nature reserves, five natural monuments and six protected
landscapes, ranging from the Peneda-Gerês National Park to the Serra da
Estrela Natural Park. In 2005, the Esposende coastal Protected Landscape
area was promoted to a Natural park for "the conservation of the coastal
cordão and its natural physical, aesthetic and landscape elements".
In terms of the long-established population, Portugal is a very
homogeneous country in terms of language, ethnicity and religion.
The Portuguese language is spoken throughout the country and only in
the villages of Miranda do Douro is a dialect associated with Asturian
(Mirandés) spoken, which is recognized as a minority language.
The largest indigenous ethnic minority is made up of 40,000 to 50,000
Roma, who are often socially and economically marginalized. The first
comprehensive official study on the Portuguese Roma community in 2017
revealed a figure of a good 37,000 people who still identify as Roma.
The study showed a below-average school education, but also some
improvements in education and successes of the various integration and
anti-discrimination campaigns. The right-wing populist party Chega has
been the first and only party to address resentment against Roma since
its foundation in 2019. Since then, politicians, but above all civil
society actors and journalists have been increasing the clarification
and classification of the facts about the Roma in Portugal.
The
coastal strip between the two metropolitan regions of the country, Porto
and Lisbon, has the densest population. Almost 40% of the population
lives in this strip; the hinterland and the south of Portugal, on the
other hand, are only sparsely populated. The two largest cities (Lisbon
and Porto) account for more than 10% of the population, while more than
half live in places with less than 2000 inhabitants. The trend in
Portugal is towards urbanization.
According to the results of the census, a total of 10,344,802 people
lived in Portugal in 2021. As a result, the population has doubled since
1900. The population growth was by no means constant. A population
decline in 1920 due to the effects of the First World War, the Spanish
Flu and a wave of emigration was followed by a period of growth that
lasted until the 1940s and which benefited from increasing life
expectancy of the people. From about 1965 to 1973 there was a strong
emigration. In 1974, due to the independence of the colonies, many
people migrated to Portugal. The emigration of the 1980s came to a
standstill in the 1990s.
The Portuguese population grew again in
2019, 9 years after the beginning of the financial crisis in 2010, after
having shrunk since the financial crisis. Some of the reasons for the
renewed population growth are the reception of migrants from the former
colonies, the improvement and stabilization of the economic situation,
which stopped the emigration of young Portuguese and families, and the
return of Portuguese from abroad. in 2020 and 2021, over 10.34 million
inhabitants were recorded.
The birth rate, which was still at 30
per 1000 inhabitants before 1920, has fallen to 8.2 per 1000 inhabitants
by 2021. The fertility rate reached the lowest level in the country's
history in 2021 with only 1.4 children per woman. In the 1960s, a woman
had an average of three children. There are considerable regional
differences in terms of population development: while the population of
the Algarve, Lisbon and the Azores is growing, that of the Alentejo and
the Centro is declining. There are strong migratory movements within
Portugal, with the migratory movements from the hinterland regions
towards the major cities such as Lisbon, Porto, Braga, Leiria, Coimbra,
Aveiro and the Algarve.
The population of Portugal is aging: in
2021, 1.3 million people under the age of 16 lived in Portugal, while
2.5 million people were 65 years or older. This trend is particularly
pronounced in the hinterland; the reason is the migration of younger
residents to the big cities and metropolitan regions. Since many
Portuguese who have worked abroad are returning to their homeland for
the rest of their lives, the aging of the country's population is
particularly striking. Life expectancy at birth in 2022 was 82 years (85
for women and 79 for men), which places Portugal 34th (Germany 43rd)
according to the United Nations list. In 1970, life expectancy was still
67 years (70 for women and 64 for men).
For a long time, Portugal was a country of emigration; in 2021, over 20% of Portuguese people lived abroad. There are important centers of Portuguese culture in the diaspora, especially in France, where 1,132,048 Portuguese live alone, but also in many other countries, especially Brazil, South Africa, Venezuela, Switzerland, on the east coast of the USA, and most recently increasingly in Angola. In 2012, there were 81,274 Portuguese living in Luxembourg, making them 16 percent of the population of Luxembourg. On the other hand, Portugal was already a destination for immigrants from the colonized regions during the wars of independence of its colonies.
Since Portugal's accession to the European Community in 1986 and the
associated political and economic changes, Portugal has increasingly
become a country of immigration, with the countries of origin of
immigrants mainly in Africa (Cape Verde, Angola, Guinea-Bissau), South
America (Brazil) and Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Romania, Russia and the
Republic of Moldova). Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022,
about 54,000 Ukrainian citizens and residents of Ukraine have also been
accepted as refugees in Portugal (as of October 17, 2022). Previously,
Portugal had already taken in refugees from the civil wars in Iraq and,
above all, Syria, including almost 3,000 under international agreements
between the UN and the EU to take in refugees from Greece, Italy and,
above all, Turkey.
At the end of 2008, there were 443,102 foreign
nationals living in Portugal. More than half of them come from other
Portuguese-speaking countries, are mostly of the Catholic faith and
therefore have a similar cultural background. About a quarter of the
foreigners living in Portugal are Europeans, some of whom are returnees,
i.e. Portuguese who have emigrated from Portugal and returned with
foreign citizenship. Another part is permanent vacationers who are
spending their retirement in Portugal. In 2017, 8.5% of the population
was born abroad.
More than half of the foreign population lives
in Lisbon, apart from that it concentrates on the urban areas on the
coast. In the hinterland, the share is less than 0.5%.
The 2021
census showed a current number of 555,299 inhabitants of Portugal with
foreign nationality, which currently represent 5.4% of the total
population.
Data on the genetic makeup of the Portuguese point to their weak
internal differentiation and essentially continental Paleolithic
European base. It is true that there were demic processes in the
Mesolithic (probable connection to North Africa) and Neolithic (creating
some connection with the Middle East, but much less than in other areas
of Europe), just as the migrations of the Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages
contributed to the indo-Europeanization of the Iberian Peninsula
(essentially a "celtization"), without erasing the strong Mediterranean
character, particularly to the south and East. Romanization, Germanic
invasions, Moorish Islamic rule, and Jewish presence will also have had
their impact and contribution. We can even list all the most
historically important peoples who passed through Portugal and / or
stayed: the pre-indo-European cultures of Iberia (such as Tartessos and
others before) and their descendants (such as the conians, later
"celticized"); the proto-Celts and Celts (such as the lusitanians,
gallaici, celtici); a few Phoenicians and Carthaginians; Romans;
Swabians, burians and Visigoths, as well as a few vandals and Alans; a
few Byzantines; Berbers with some Arabs and saqaliba (Slavic slaves);
Sephardic Jews; sub-Saharan Africans; less massive flows of European
migrants (particularly from Western Europe). All these population
processes will have left their mark, sometimes stronger, sometimes only
vestigial. But the genetic basis of the relatively homogeneous
population of the Portuguese territory, as of the rest of the Iberian
Peninsula, has remained the same in the last forty millennia: the first
Moderna human beings to enter Western Europe, the Paleolithic
hunter-gatherers.
One of the common criticisms of census data
relates to the apparent poor coverage of ethnic groups. However, it is
part of the policy of the National Statistics Institute not to include
the distinction of race or ethnicity, and there is only the collection
of data on nationality.
The official language of the Portuguese Republic is Portuguese,
adopted in 1290 by decree of King D. Dinis. With over 210 million native
speakers, it is the fifth most spoken language in the world and the
third most spoken in the Western world. It is the official language of
Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and
Príncipe, and an official language alongside other official languages in
Timor-Leste, Macau and Equatorial Guinea. It is also spoken in the
former Portuguese India (Goa, Daman, Diu and Dadrá and Nagar-Aveli), as
well as having official status in the European Union, the Union of South
American nations (UNASUR), the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and the
African Union.
Portuguese sign language and mirandese are also
officially recognized and protected, officially protected in the
municipality of Miranda do Douro, with Origin in Asturian-Leonese,
taught as an optional second language in schools in the municipality of
Miranda do Douro and part of the municipality of Vimioso. Its use,
however, is quite restricted, and actions are underway to guarantee the
linguistic rights of its speaking community.
The Portuguese
language is a romance language (of the ibero-romance group), as are
Galician, Castilian, Catalan, Italian, French, Romanian, reto-Romansh
(Switzerland), and others. Portuguese is known as the language of Camões
(after Luís de Camões, author of the Lusíadas), the last Flower of
Lazio, an expression used in the sonnet Língua Portuguesa by Olavo Bilac
or the sweet language by Miguel de Cervantes.
The vast majority of Portuguese profess the Roman Catholic faith,
with the proportion of the total population being given with values
between 85% and 95%. In addition, there are other Christian churches in
Portugal, including Evangelical congregations, Jehovah's Witnesses,
Evangelical Free Churches (especially from Brazil) or the Anglican
Lusitanian Church of Portugal.
In Portugal, there is freedom of
religion and, since the introduction of the "Law on Freedom of Belief"
(Lei da Liberdade Religiosa), equality between religions has officially
also prevailed. However, equality has not yet been achieved in reality:
the Catholic Church runs important cultural institutions, a prestigious
university, private schools and also a radio station in Portugal.
Furthermore, the law on Freedom of belief is only partially applicable
to the Catholic Church. Whether public schools should be obliged to
offer religious education has been controversial in Portugal since the
1980s. In 2004, a new concordat was concluded between Portugal and the
Holy See. On the one hand, the church has the right to offer lessons,
but there must be consent. Also, in principle, all religious communities
must have the same right, which is practically difficult to implement.
In the first Constitution of Portugal (1822), Catholicism was
declared the state religion. The Constitution of 1826 abolished
religious persecution. The official separation of state and church took
place with the Republican Revolution of 1910, with concordats with the
Vatican continuing to grant far-reaching privileges to the Catholic
Church. in 1976, secularism was enshrined in the Constitution of
Portugal (Article 41, paragraph 4).
The Portuguese expression of
Catholicism is described as "human, lyrical and with an understanding of
the carnal things of life". Typical is the strong veneration of the
Virgin Mary. The most important pilgrimage destination is the pilgrimage
site Fátima. The Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to three shepherd
children here in 1917.
In the Middle Ages, two other religions
played an important role in Portugal: Muslim Moors and Arabs dominated
the south of the country for a long time from the year 711 onwards.
After the reconquista, they had to leave the country or submit to the
Christians. They brought with them numerous technical advances, such as
improvements in well construction, irrigation, olive cultivation,
cultivation of citrus fruits, cotton and sugar cane, silkworm breeding,
the production of tiles, blinds, hygiene and ornamentation. The society
in Portugal at that time also offered subjugated or enslaved Moors the
opportunity to rise socially; the Muslim population was absorbed into
the Christian one.
Judaism in Portugal also has a long history. Thus,
in the Middle Ages, the Jews enjoyed the protection of the Portuguese
kings. The wealth acquired and saved by trade and administrative posts
in the state and church served as the basis for the construction of the
Portuguese fleet. anti-Jewish pogroms occurred in Lisbon in 1504 and
1506. Later, the situation of the Jews in Portugal improved again. The
semi-fascist Salazar dictatorship, for example, does not take part in
the persecution of the Jews, and in 1938 the largest synagogue on the
Iberian Peninsula was inaugurated with the Sinagoga Kadoorie. In 2015,
Portugal enacted a special citizenship law for the descendants of
Sephardic Jews, underlined the importance of Portugal's Jewish history
for the country and apologized for the historical injustice that had
happened to them here.
Lisbon is home to one of the largest Hindu
communities in Europe, mainly thanks to its Nepalese and Indian-born
residents. In addition, there are other faiths in Portugal, including
Buddhism, with the União Budista Portuguesa association as the central
organ (see also Portuguese-Tibetan relations).
A representative
survey commissioned by the European Commission within the framework of
the Eurobarometer in 2020 showed that religion is important for 47
percent of people in Portugal, for 37 percent it is neither important
nor unimportant and for 15 percent it is unimportant.
The city of Lisbon, with more than half a million inhabitants and with nearly 3 million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, is the largest city and the largest urban area in the country, the main economic hub, holding the main Portuguese seaport and airport and is the richest city in Portugal with a GDP per capita higher than the European Union average. Other important cities are Porto, (about 240,000 inhabitants – 1.7 million in the metropolitan area) the second largest city and economic center, Aveiro (sometimes called the "Portuguese Venice"), Braga ("City of Archbishops"), Chaves (historic and ancient city), Coimbra (with the oldest university in the country), Guimarães ("cradle City"), Évora ("Museum City"), Setúbal (third largest port), Portimão (3.º cruise port and headquarters of the AIA), Faro and Viseu. In the metropolitan area of Lisbon there are cities with high population density such as Agualva-Cacém and Queluz (municipality of Sintra), Amadora, Almada, Amora, Seixal, Barreiro, Montijo and Odivelas. In the metropolitan area of Porto the most populated municipalities are Vila Nova de Gaia, Maia, Matosinhos and Gondomar. In the Autonomous Region of Madeira the main city is Funchal. In the Autonomous Region of the Azores there are three main cities: Ponta Delgada on the island of São Miguel, Angra do Heroísmo on Terceira Island and Horta on Faial island.
In Portugal, the fundamental law is the Constitution, dated 1976, all
other laws must respect it. The Constitution has undergone some
revisions. It is provided in the Constitution to hold referendums of
popular consultation, however, the result can be politically annulled.
The first referendum was in 1933 that approved the Constitution that led
to the creation of the Estado Novo. Other structuring laws of the
country are the Civil Code (1966), the Criminal Code (1982), The
Commercial Code (1888), the Code of Civil Procedure (2013), the Code of
Criminal Procedure (1987) and the Labor Code (2011). Some of these laws
have undergone major revisions since their original publication.
There are four organs of sovereignty: the president of the Republic
(Head of State – moderating power, but with some executive power), the
Assembly of the Republic (Parliament – legislative power), the
government (executive power) and the courts (judicial power). A
semi-presidential system is in force in the country, according to the
constitutional framework established in 1976. Portuguese
semi-presidentialism - with a parliamentary bias (attenuated or
accentuated, depending on whether the government is majority or
minority) - supports 4 essential structural features: the election of
the president of the Republic by direct and universal suffrage; the
sharing of executive power between the latter and the government,
without the former ever directly and formally heading the executive; the
political accountability of the government before the Assembly of the
Republic and the president of the Republic; and the head of State holds
the power to dissolve Parliament and Regional Legislative Assemblies.
Therefore, the president of the Republic is the head of State and is
elected by universal Suffrage, for a term of five years. Unlike the
other organs of sovereignty, the candidate for this position has to be
over 35 and a national citizen. The winning candidate - at the
inauguration before the Assembly of the Republic-takes the following
oath: "I swear by my honor to faithfully perform the functions in which
I am invested and to defend, comply with and enforce the Constitution of
the Portuguese Republic". The elected candidate must have more than half
of the votes. In case there is no clear winner, a second round is held
with the two most voted candidates from the first round.
The
president of the Republic exercises - among the aforementioned functions
- that of command, as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces (Army, Navy,
Air Force, National Republican Guard); that of formal representation of
the Portuguese State abroad and in international relations, namely in
the ratification of international conventions or treaties and in the
reception of the credentials of foreign ambassadors; to promulgate and
order the publication or veto of legislative acts, namely the laws of
the Assembly of the Republic, the decrees-laws and the
decrees-regulations of the government, as well as to request the
supervision of the constitutionality of these diplomas; to appoint and
dismiss the Prime Minister and the other ministers, in the latter case
on the proposal of the head of government; to confer decorations and to
exercise the position of Grand Master of the honorary orders. It is also
up to the president of the Republic, on a proposal from the government,
to appoint and dismiss ambassadors and the highest military positions
(Chiefs of staff), as well as the appointment of the Attorney General of
the Republic. Within the framework of the interdependence of powers
between the president of the Republic, the Assembly of the Republic and
the government, it is up to the former to declare war and make peace,
declare a state of emergency and a state of siege, and pardon and
commute sentences. The Portuguese head of State officially resides at
the Belém Palace in Lisbon.
The Assembly of the Republic, which
meets in Lisbon, at the São Bento Palace, is elected for a four-year
term. The primacy of legislative power is attributed to the Assembly of
the Republic, sharing, in some cases, part of this power with the
government. However, the Assembly of the Republic has supervisory powers
over legislative acts of the government, either through the granting of
legislative authorizations or through parliamentary consideration of
these. At the moment it has 230 deputies, elected in 22 plurinominal
circles on political party lists, although independent citizens can
participate in these. The president of the Assembly is elected by the
deputies, always being an elected deputy in the legislatures, usually
the elected deputy is from the government party. The president of the
Assembly is the second figure of the state, taking charge of the
functions of the president of the Republic in case of his absence.
The government is headed by the prime minister, who is, as a rule,
the leader of the most voted party in each legislative election, and is
invited, in this form, by the president of the Republic to form a
government, so the government is not elected but appointed. It is the
president of the Republic who appoints and dismisses the remaining
ministers, on the proposal of the Prime Minister. This officially
resides in the Palacete de São Bento, at the back of the Assembly of the
Republic, in Lisbon. Any government can be subject to a motion of
censure and can overthrow it in the Assembly. A motion of confidence may
also be tabled, opposing the motion of censure.
Since 1975, the
Portuguese political landscape has been dominated by two parties: the
Socialist Party (PS) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD). These
parties have divided the tasks of governing and administering most
municipalities, practically since the establishment of democracy.
However, parties such as the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), which
still holds the presidency of municipalities and a great influence with
the trade union movement or the CDS – Popular party (CDS-PP) (which has
already governed the country in coalition with the PS and the PSD) are
also important in political chess. In addition to these, the Left Bloc
(B. E.) And The Ecologist Party "the Greens" (ENP) have seats in
Parliament.
Portuguese law has evolved from Roman law. According to French law,
it was mainly influenced by German law in the 20th century.
In
Portugal, the following dishes exist:
the Constitutional Court
(Tribunal Constitucional)
the Supreme Court (Supremo Tribunal de
Justiça)
5 Courts of Appeal (tribunais da relação)
23 District
Courts (tribunais de comarca), 4 Courts of Execution (tribunais de
execução das penas), 4 Specialized courts (Tribunal marítimo; Tribunal
da propriedade intelectual; Tribunal da concorrência, regulação e
supervisão; Tribunal central de instrução criminal)
25 Courts of
Peace (julgados de paz)
the Supreme Administrative Court (Supremo
Tribunal Administrativo)
2 central administrative courts (tribunais
centrais administrativos)
15 Administrative and Fiscal Courts
(tribunais administrativos e fiscais), a district administrative court
(tribunal administrativo de círculo), a tax court (tribunal tributário)
the Court of Auditors (Tribunal de Contas).
Portugal's foreign policy is linked to its historical role as a
prominent figure of the age of Discovery and holder of the extinct
Portuguese Empire. Portugal is a founding member of NATO (1949), OECD
(1961) and EFTA (1960); leaving the latter in 1986 to join the European
Union (EU), then still the European Economic Community (EEC). Founder of
the first International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), on June 25,
1992, it became a member state of the Schengen Area, and in 1996,
co-founded the community of Portuguese-speaking countries (CPLP).
Portugal has benefited significantly from the European Union and is
a proponent of European integration. He has served as president of the
Council of the European Union four times (in 1992, 2000, 2007 and 2021).
Portugal took advantage of its presidencies to launch a dialogue between
the EU and Africa, to make the European economy more dynamic and
competitive and, in the penultimate presidency, to establish and sign,
together with the other member states, the reform Treaty, which became
known as the Treaty of Lisbon.
Portugal was a founding member of
NATO; it is an active member of the alliance by, for example,
contributing proportionately large contingents to the peacekeeping
forces in the Balkans. Portugal proposed the creation of the community
of Portuguese-speaking countries (CPLP) to improve its ties with other
Portuguese-speaking countries. In addition, it has participated,
together with Spain, in a series of Ibero-American summits. Portugal has
staunchly advocated the independence of Timor-Leste, a former overseas
province, sending troops and money to Timor in close collaboration with
the United States, Asian allies and the UN.
It has a friendship
and alliance through a treaty concluded with Brazil, in addition to the
history that unites the two countries (see: relations between Brazil and
Portugal). Portugal has the oldest alliance in the world, which was
concluded with England (succeeded by the United Kingdom) and remains to
this day.
The only international dispute concerns the
municipality of Olivenza. Portuguese since 1297, the municipality of
Olivenza was ceded to Spain under the Treaty of Badajoz in 1801 after
the war of the oranges. Portugal claimed it in 1815 under the Treaty of
Vienna. Today the Municipality consists of the Spanish municipality of
the same name and the municipality of Táliga, separated from the
previous one. However, bilateral diplomatic relations between the two
neighboring countries are cordial, as well as within the framework of
the European Union.
Education was neglected until the Carnation Revolution in 1974; after
the revolution, the construction of the education system progressed only
slowly. This is still noticeable today: in 2000, for example, only about
a tenth of thirty-year-olds had a university degree. Thus, Portugal was
far behind among the EU members by a large margin before the eastern
enlargement. The illiteracy rate is around 4.6% (3.1% for men, 5.9% for
women). In the PISA ranking of 2015, Portugal's students are ranked 29th
out of 72 countries in mathematics, 22nd in science and 21st in reading
comprehension. Portugal is thus above the average of the OECD countries.
The school system consists of a four-year primary school and a
five-year secondary school. There is a statutory nine-year compulsory
education for children from the age of six. Compulsory education is free
of charge at state schools. Families in need can receive support for
teaching at one of the comparatively numerous private schools.
Those who complete the three-year Escola Secundária after high school
get the university entrance qualification and can choose between several
options for higher education: higher education is offered in Portugal by
state and private universities (universidades) as well as state and
private universities of applied sciences (escolas politécnicas).
Universities have been set up in many medium-sized cities to promote
remote areas. In any case, an entrance exam is to be taken and tuition
fees are to be paid, which are higher in private schools than in state
ones. They are different depending on the specialty, for state
institutions up to 850 euros per year. Nevertheless, about a third of
students are enrolled in a private institution. In addition to the
registration fees, propinas, fees for the awarding of certificates and
diplomas are to be paid. About 20% of the students benefit from
income-dependent state support.
With the tax-financed Serviço Nacional de Saúde, a largely free
health care system has been available to all locals and visitors since
1979, with the exception of mostly small additional payments, as
stipulated by the Portuguese Constitution of 1976. In addition, there
are professional and private health care systems. With 3.34 doctors per
1000 inhabitants (as of 2016), the level of medical care in Portugal
ranks 29th in the world (comparison: Germany 4.33; Switzerland 4.24;
Austria 5.14). Life expectancy in Portugal, at 82 years (as of 2022), is
higher than the European Union average of 78 years, see list of
countries by average life expectancy.
The INEM public rescue
service covers continental Portugal with a unified emergency service.
Portugal is divided into 18 districts and two autonomous regions: the Azores and Madeira. The districts are an older version of the division of the country, which is becoming less and less important. The five historical regions of the country have been divided into 25 subregions, which are becoming more and more important due to the change in the population centers in the country. This is followed by local self-government in Portugal, with 308 municípios (which can be compared with German counties or Swiss districts) and 3091 freguesias (municipalities). Until the administrative reorganization in 2013, there were 4259 municipalities.
When it comes to the division of regions and subregions, which are also known as European NUTS, there are seven regions in Portugal (five regions on the mainland and the two autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira), which can still be divided into 25 subregions.
The armed forces have three branches: Army, Navy and Air Force.
Portugal's military serves primarily as a vigorous self-defense force
whose mission is to protect the country's territorial integrity, and to
provide humanitarian and security assistance at home and abroad. Since
2004, compulsory military service is no longer practiced, having been
replaced by National Defense Day. The age for voluntary recruitment is
set at 18 years. In the twentieth century, Portugal was involved in two
major military interventions: World War I and the Portuguese Colonial
war (1961-1974).
Portugal has participated in peacekeeping
missions, namely in Timor-Leste, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo,
Afghanistan, Iraq (Nasiriyah) and southern Lebanon. The Portuguese Army
has a rapid reaction Brigade, a Mechanized Brigade and an Intervention
Brigade. These three echelons of force bring together the most diverse
specialties of the military discipline, thus containing engineering,
cavalry, artillery and infantry units, inserting in the latter the units
of Special Troops, such as commandos, paratroopers and special
operations.
The security of the population is in charge of the
National Republican Guard (GNR) and the Public Security Police (PSP)
which are under the purview of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In
addition to these, Portugal has the Judicial Police (PJ), which is the
main criminal investigation police body in the country, dedicated to
combating major crime, namely organized crime, terrorism, drug
trafficking, corruption and economic and financial crime. The Judicial
Police is integrated into the Ministry of Justice, acting under the
guidance of the Public Prosecutor's office.
Since 1985, the country has entered a modernization process in a
fairly stable environment (1985 to the present) and joined the European
Union in 1986. Successive governments have made several reforms,
privatised many state-controlled companies and liberalised key areas of
the economy, including the telecommunications and financial sectors.
Portugal developed an increasingly service-based economy and was one of
the eleven founding members of the European currency – the Euro – in
1999. It began circulating its new currency on 1 January 2002 with
eleven other member states of the European Union.
When looking at
a longer period of time, the convergence of the Portuguese economy to
European Union standards has been impressive, especially between 1986
and the early 2000s. According to Barry (2003), "what seems to have been
crucial in the Portuguese case, in relation to Spain at least, is the
degree of labour market flexibility that the economy exhibits. (... This
Portuguese convergence has been impressive, even if, consistent with its
relatively low stock of human capital, the economy has specialized in
low-tech production."Portuguese economic growth was above the European
Union average for most of the 1990s and a quality of life survey by The
Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Portugal 19th.º best quality of life
in the world in 2005, ahead of other economically and technologically
advanced countries such as France, Germany, the United Kingdom and South
Korea, but nine places behind its only neighbor, Spain.
However,
the 2013 Global Competitiveness Report, published by the World Economic
Forum, ranked Portugal's level of economic competitiveness at 46.ª
position among the 60 countries surveyed, behind Spain and Italy, which
represents a drop in relation to the positions achieved in the reports
of previous years. Portugal also remains the country with the lowest GDP
per capita among Western European nations and the one with one of the
highest rates of economic inequality among members of the European
Union. In 2007, the poor performance of the Portuguese economy was
explored by The Economist magazine, which described Portugal as the "new
sick man of Europe". On 6 April 2011, following the onset of the 2008
economic crisis and the deepening of the eurozone public debt crisis,
then prime minister José Sócrates announced on national television that
the country had requested financial assistance from the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European financial stabilisation fund
(EFSF), as Greece and the Republic of Ireland had already done. It was
the third time foreign financial aid had been requested from the IMF –
the first was in the late 1970s, after the April 25 Revolution. On July
6 of the same year, the US rating agency Moody's downgraded the rating
to "financial junk", causing the fall of the largest national banks in
PSI 20. In 2017, the country left the classification of "financial
garbage" and returned to growth rates in the range of 2.8–3%. The
financial rating agency Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's removed
Portugal from the "junk" level, improving the rating assigned to
Portuguese public debt by two levels, from BB+ to BBB, the second level
of the investment category.
With a predominantly agricultural past, currently and due to all the
development that the country has registered, the structure of the
economy is based on services and industry, which represent 67.8% and
28.2% of GVA.
Portuguese agriculture is well adapted due to the
climate, relief and favorable soils. In recent decades, agricultural
modernization has intensified, although still about 12% of the working
population works in agriculture. Olive Trees (4 000 km2), vineyards (3
750 km2), wheat (3 000 km2) and maize (2 680 km2) are produced in fairly
large areas. Portuguese wines (especially port wine and Madeira wine)
and olive oils are highly prized due to their quality. Portugal is also
a producer of selected quality fruit, namely the Algarvian oranges, The
Rock pear of the Western Region, the gardunha cherry and the Madeira
banana. Other productions are horticultural or floricultural, such as
sweet beets, sunflower oil and tobacco.
The economic importance
of fishing has been declining, employing less than 1% of the working
population. The decrease in the reserves of fishing resources was
reflected in the reduction of the Portuguese fishing fleet, which,
although it has been modernizing, still has difficulty competing with
other European fleets. Despite the reduced extent of the Portuguese
continental shelf, there is some species diversity in the waters of
Portugal'S EEZ, one of the largest in Europe. The Portuguese fleet
captures in international waters and in the EEZs of other countries. As
a whole, the most caught species are sardines, horse mackerel, octopus,
black swordfish, mackerel and tuna. The ports with the highest fish
landing in 2001 were Matosinhos, Peniche, Olhão and Sesimbra.
Cork has a very significant production: in 2010, Portugal produced 54%
of the Cork produced in the world. The most significant mineral
resources in Portugal are copper, lithium (7), Wolfram (6), tin,
uranium, feldspars (11), rock salt, talc and marble.
Portugal's
trade balance has long been in deficit, with the value of exports
covering only 65% of the value of imports in 2006. The largest exports
correspond to textiles, clothing, machinery, electrical equipment,
vehicles, transport equipment, footwear, leather, wood, cork, paper,
among others. The country mainly imports products from the European
Union: Spain, Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.
Tourism remains an extremely important economic sector for Portugal,
and the number of visitors is expected to increase significantly in the
coming years. However, there is increasing competition with Eastern
European destinations such as Croatia, which offer similar attractions
but are often cheaper. Consequently, the country is almost obliged to
focus on its niche attractions, such as health, nature and rural
tourism, in order to stay ahead of its competitors.
Portugal is
among the 20 most visited countries in the world, receiving an annual
average of 13 million foreign tourists. Tourism is playing an
increasingly important role in Portugal's economy, contributing to
around 11% of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010. Among the
foreign people who visited the country the most in 2012 are the British,
followed by Spaniards, Germans, French and Brazilians.
In 2013,
Portugal was ranked 20th.Ranked among the 140 nations assessed by the
travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, published by the World
Economic Forum. In the same year, Portugal was also elected by Condé
Nast Traveller the best destination in the world to travel. Landscape,
gastronomy, beaches and the friendliness of the population were the
criteria used for the choice. The publication highlighted the"special
charm that is visible in the traditions of the country, with cities that
combine modernity with the visible weight of history, landscapes and
beaches that reconcile us with nature".
In May 2014, the travel
portal of the US newspaper USA Today chose the country as the best in
Europe for a vacation.
The main tourist spots in Portugal are
Lisbon, Fatima, Algarve and Madeira, but the Portuguese government
continues to promote and develop new tourist destinations, such as the
Douro Valley, the island of Porto Santo and the Alentejo. In 2005,
Lisbon was the second European city, only behind Barcelona, that
attracted more tourists, with seven million overnight stays in the
city's hotels.
Structural problems have traditionally been cited as an obstacle to
stronger growth in productivity and employment. Initially, these were
deficits in the education system, the relatively high illiteracy rate,
the sometimes poor infrastructure and the inefficient administration.
Especially since the late 1990s, these deficits are largely considered
to have been eliminated. For example, the illiteracy rate in Portugal is
now at 5%, and the trend is decreasing (for comparison: Germany 1%). in
2013, 24.6% of men and 36.1% of women between the ages of 30 and 34 had
a university degree (for comparison: NRW 28.3% / 29.9%). In addition,
the infrastructure in the country has undergone enormous investments,
also with the help of the EU. As a result, an above-average expansion of
fiber optic connections for fast Internet can be considered as an
example (2012: 10.3%, for comparison: Germany 1.1%), Portugal's motorway
network is also one of the densest in Europe today, and it is possible
to start a business online within one day. Award-winning developments
such as the widespread Multibanco ATMs or the Via Verde toll system can
be considered examples of the country's ability to innovate. After a
boom period until the early 2000s, Portugal then increasingly came into
competition with the low-wage countries of Central and Eastern Europe,
Asia and North Africa, which made Portugal less attractive for foreign
direct investment. However, these have increased significantly again
since 2009 and amounted to more than 57 billion euros in 2012. The
average wages in Portugal are still low by Western European standards
and the working hours are sometimes much longer.
In February
2022, unemployment in Portugal was 5.8 percent. Before the crisis, in
2008, the unemployment rate had been at 7.6 percent. By June 2018, it
had fallen to 6.7 percent, thus falling below the pre-crisis level.
In 2014, 8.6% of the total labor force worked in agriculture, 23.9%
in industry and 67.5% in the service sector. The total number of
employees is estimated at 5.23 million in 2017, of which 48.8% are
women.
About 80% of foreign trade is conducted with EU partners. The main
exports are clothing and footwear, vehicles, machinery, chemical
products, cork as well as pulp and paper. Machinery, vehicles, oil and
oil products as well as agricultural products are imported. Portugal
traditionally had a large trade deficit, but was able to significantly
increase its exports as part of its economic efforts, after its deep
economic crisis after the euro crisis in 2010, and has had a trade
surplus since about 2012, which has tended to increase further since
then. In the past, the balance of payments deficit was not as high as
the trade deficit due to income from tourism and remittances from
foreign sports giants.
Foreign trade has become increasingly
important for Portugal's economic policy since 2010. Also thanks to the
efforts of the State Chamber of Foreign Trade AICEP and other actors,
the country's exports reached the Portuguese record value of 44.3% of
GDP in 2018, the plans of the government under the socialist Prime
Minister Costa – before the COVID-19 pandemic that also broke out in
Portugal in March 2020 - aimed at a further increase to 50% of GDP by
2025. Portugal is also becoming increasingly important as an IT
location. Not only are more and more start-up companies settling in
Portugal, with the LX Factory cluster in Lisbon as the best-known
example, but international corporations are also relocating their
development departments here, for example to Oeiras near Lisbon, or
setting up joint ventures, including German companies such as BMW. The
reasons are the large number of qualified graduates, the good IT
infrastructure and the comparatively low wage level.
Foreign
investments come mainly from Spain, Germany and Great Britain. In the
meantime, increasing investments from the oil-rich former Portuguese
colony of Angola have also caused a stir, such as the purchase of the
bank Banco BIC Português by an Angolan banking house or the investments
of Isabel dos Santos, among others, in Portuguese media companies.
One of the most significant foreign investments in Portugal is the
Autoeuropa automobile assembly plant. Among the most important
Portuguese companies operating internationally are Energias de Portugal,
Portugal Telecom, the Jerónimo Martins group, which is particularly
successful in retail, and the Sonae Group, which, for example, runs the
Alexa shopping center on Berlin's Alexanderplatz.
According to the port. In 2010, the installed capacity of the power
plants in Portugal amounted to 11,195 MW, of which caloric power plants
accounted for 6,561 MW (59%) and hydroelectric power plants 4,584 MW
(41%). A total of 48.5 billion kWh were generated in 2010, of which 37.4
billion (77%) were generated by caloric power plants and 11.1 billion
(23%) by hydroelectric power plants.
Wind energy has been a very
important factor in the electricity supply for two decades. At the end
of 2023, wind turbines with a rated output of 5,834 MW were installed in
Portugal from 2021 to 2023, they each covered 26% and thus more than a
quarter of the Portuguese electricity demand (2019: 27 %, 2020: 25 %).
Already in 2014, 27% had been achieved, which was the second highest
value worldwide and was only surpassed by Denmark with 39.1%. With an
installed capacity of 2,536 MW (2022), the power generation from
photovoltaics is not quite as significant, but the expansion reached a
new peak value of 890 MW in 2022. In addition, there is bioenergy with
891 MW. in 2020, renewable energies covered 61.7% of Portugal's
electricity demand, almost half of which came from wind turbines. In May
2016, the country was continuously supplied exclusively by renewable
energies for 107 hours or 4 days. At the end of 2008, the Alto Minho
wind farm, the largest onshore wind farm in Europe at that time, was put
into operation.
Based on the total final energy demand
(electricity, heat, transport), renewable energies supplied 30.3% of the
energy in 2018 (2013: 25.7%), Portugal wanted to increase this share to
31% by 2020.
By mid-2021, almost two thirds of the electricity
generated in Portugal already came from renewable sources (15.08 billion
kWh) and only a good third from fossil sources, excluding gas (7.68
billion kWh) and hard coal (0.22 billion kWh). By the end of 2021, the
last two coal-fired power plants in the country were shut down, with
green hydrogen being produced at the Sines site in the future, while the
second block will also be converted to gas at the Pego site.
In
mid-2021, Portugal already covered 79.5% of its electricity needs from
renewables. This puts the country at the top of all EU countries and is
surpassed in Europe only by Norway. In the first quarter of 2021,
electricity generation in Portugal came from 44% hydropower, 28% wind
power, 5.6% biomass and 2% solar energy. Fossil fuels still contributed
to 20.5%, of which 11% was natural gas, 8.2% was combined heat and power
and 1.6% was coal.
Portugal is one of the world's leading nations in tungsten production. There are also coal, copper, tin, gold, iron ores such as pyrite and chalcopyrite, clay minerals such as kaolinite, as well as wolframite, uraninite and lithium. In the second half of the 20th century, Portugal was considered an important supplier of uranium. However, uranium mining was stopped at the beginning of the 21st century due to inefficiency. During the Second World War, Germany supplied itself with Portuguese tungsten for weapons production. The atomic bomb of Hiroshima contained Portuguese uranium.
Portugal's agriculture is one of the most inefficient in Europe; the
share of agriculture in GDP is about 5%, but more than 15% of the labor
force is employed in agriculture. This led to the fact that many farms
abandoned, and almost half of the food is imported. The cultivation of
almonds is in a deep crisis, as are the cork oak plantations (montados)
in the Alentejo and the Douro Valley. Although Portugal is the most
important production country for raw cork with about 125,000 tons and
thus half of the world's harvested quantity. Nevertheless, the industry
has been under great pressure since the turn of the millennium due to
the increasing popularity and international production of synthetically
produced closure alternatives for wine bottles. The hope of numerous
cork farmers (tiradores) that the Portuguese cork is irreplaceable, at
least for wines in the high-price segment, has also not been fulfilled,
because the trend away from the natural product towards more
cost-effective alternatives made of plastic can also be observed in
expensive wines. The consequence of this development are numerous
company insolvencies and emigrations from the cork growing regions.
Portugal's government and the cork industry are now responding to the
development with worldwide "green marketing" advertising campaigns in
which winegrowers are to be convinced again of the ecological
sustainability of the natural product cork. In addition, cork is gaining
importance as a versatile and very light material with its
water-repellent, heat- and rot-resistant, heat-insulating and
sound-insulating properties as an ecological alternative, for example as
a floor covering or insulation material. Cork is also gaining increasing
attention in shoe and clothing fashion, also as a vegan leather
substitute.
For the pulp industry, an important economic factor
in Portugal, large areas with fast-growing eucalyptus are being
reforested as a raw material. This is of concern for ecological reasons,
because eucalyptus leaches the soil, displaces the original forest and
thus the wildlife, and promotes the catastrophic forest fires in the
summer.
Similar to agriculture, fishing is struggling with
productivity problems. The Portuguese fishing fleet is poorly developed
compared to the Spanish one. Most of the fish is imported.
Tourism is responsible for about eight percent of GDP, and the trend
is rising, with the majority of visitors coming from Spain and the UK.
With over 11.4 million tourists, Portugal was ranked 30th most visited
country in the world in 2016. The Algarve is the undisputed center of
this.
There are 15 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Portugal,
including two in the Azores and one in Madeira.
For the
international marketing of the port wine from the oldest wine-growing
region Alto Douro from the 17th century, the three Germans Kopke,
Burmester and Andresen made a decisive contribution to the development
of the port wine.
The palaces with parks near Sintra and
Portugal's largest castle and monastery complex in Mafra were planned by
the German architects von Eschwege and Ludwig.
In front of the
Algarve, Sétubal and the island groups Madeira and Azores there are
opportunities to experience both dolphins and whales in the wild.
On the Atlantic island of Madeira, tourism began in the mid-19th
century; the island was one of the favorite destinations of wealthy
British travelers. They stayed mainly at the Reid's Palace Hotel, which
the Scotsman William Reid had built in 1891.
Memberships: EU, Council of Europe, Eurozone, OECD, WTO,
Ibero-American Conference of Nations, Community of Portuguese-speaking
Countries and others.
State Chamber of Foreign Trade: Agência para o
Investimento e Comércio Externo de Portugal (AICEP)
In 2018, Portugal
exported goods and services worth 89.211 billion euros. The imports of
the same period amounted to 87.211 billion euros, so that the country
recorded a trade surplus of 2 billion euros.
The main destination
countries for Portuguese exports in 2018 were Spain (25.27%), France
(12.27%), Germany (11.48%), Great Britain (6.36%), the USA (4.94%),
Italy (4.25%), the Netherlands (3.81%), Angola (2.60%), Belgium (2.34%)
and Brazil (1.46%).
Portugal's imports came mainly from Spain
(31.43%), Germany (13.85%), France (7.63%), Italy (5.32%), the
Netherlands (5.20%), China (3.14%), Belgium (2.88%), Great Britain
(2.51%), the USA (1.8%) and Russia (1.78%).
The state budget in 2019 included revenues of 91.01 billion euros and
expenditures of 90.6 billion euros, resulting in a narrow budget surplus
of about 600 million euros. This was a sign of Portugal's positive
economic development and good budgetary policy, after the country had
mostly been running a budget deficit for many years. In 2016, budget
expenditures of $ 92.2 billion were offset by revenues of $ 87.2
billion, resulting in a budget deficit of $ 5.0 billion, or 2.4% of GDP.
The national debt in 2009 amounted to 127.9 billion euros or 76.1%
of GDP (according to the following table 83.6%), now it is over 100% of
GDP. On April 6, 2011, the Prime Minister of Portugal announced that the
country would accept financial assistance from the European Union in the
wake of the debt crises of eurozone countries. Since 2014, the country
no longer needs EU financial assistance.
In 2011, new debt
amounted to 4.2% of GDP. As a result, Portugal clearly met the EU's
prescribed savings targets of 5.9% of GDP. But this was achieved only by
additional payments from pension funds (transfer of pension funds of the
State Savings Bank CGD to the state budget), otherwise the deficit would
have been 7.7 %.
In the Logistics Performance Index, which is compiled by the World Bank and measures the quality of infrastructure, Portugal ranked 23rd out of 160 countries in 2018.
The road network has grown rapidly and well developed since the
1980s, not least thanks to EU funding from funding funds. In 2008, the
entire road network covered about 82,900 km, of which 71,294 km are
paved. The important routes are covered by toll car roads. These reach a
total length of 1100 km and are mostly operated by the listed company
Brisa. On the other hand, Itinerários Principais (IP) or Itinerários
Complementares (IC) are free of charge. Investments in road transport
are also reflected in the accident statistics, 83 people per 1 million
inhabitants died in Portugal's road transport in 2008, compared to 323
in 1991 (for comparison, 54 per 1 million in Germany in 2008).
Long-distance bus transport is more important in Portugal than in
Central Europe. The largest regular bus company is Rede Expressos.
The railway network of Portugal is relatively wide-meshed. The
state-owned company Infraestruturas de Portugal manages a rail network
that has a total length of 2789 km. Of these, 188 km are narrow-gauge,
607 km are multi-gauge. Trains are offered by the state Comboios de
Portugal and by the private Fertagus. However, the connections are
efficient on the main traffic routes, the Alfa Pendular high-speed train
offers the fastest connections between the conurbations, the maximum
speed in regular operation is from 250 km / h to 300 km / h, depending
on the route and series, but they cannot be driven in Portugal. Up to
220 km / h are currently reached on the few high-speed sections. The
Lisbon–Porto high-speed line is under construction.
International
trains have not been connecting Portugal with cities in Spain since
2020, with the suspension of the Madrid-Lisbon night train due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The resumption is planned in 2024 with the opening of
a part of the Lisbon–Madrid high-speed line. Only a few regional trains
currently operate cross-border and have connections to the Spanish
high-speed trains in Badajoz and Vigo to Madrid.
There is a
subway in Lisbon. Porto has a light rail and an independent tram
service. Other trams exist in Lisbon and south of the Tagus.
The five most important airports in Portugal are Lisbon, Porto, Faro,
Ponta Delgada and Funchal. They are served by several airlines, with the
Portuguese lines TAP Portugal, SATA Air Açores and Portugália Airlines
providing the most connections. In 2006, Portuguese airports handled a
total of 22 million passengers and 135,000 tons of cargo. It was
expected that by 2025 the volume of traffic will increase to 46.8
million passengers and 259,000 tons of cargo.
In view of the
increasing number of passengers, it was decided to create a new
commercial airport (Novo Aeroporto Lisboa) in addition to the existing
Lisbon Airport. It is to be built at the little-used military airport in
Montijo. It is located on the southern bank of the Tagus River. The
operation is to be started from 2022. The start of construction and the
opening, originally scheduled for 2017, were postponed indefinitely in
2010 due to the financial crisis.
The main ports of Portugal are located in Aveiro, Porto, Lisbon, Sines and Setúbal. In 2007, almost 70% of all imports entered the country by sea, while 41% of exports were handled through ports. Of the 58 million tons, 39% passed through the port of Sines. The ports are being modernised and their transport links improved so that they can handle a larger part of Spain's foreign trade. Of the rivers, the Douro and the Tagus are navigable.
In the fire brigade in Portugal, around 4,100 professional and around 45,000 volunteer firefighters were organized in 2019, who work in over 470 fire stations and fire houses, where 1,600 fire trucks and turntable ladders or telescopic masts are available. The national Fire Brigade Association Liga Dos Bombeiros Portugueses represents the Portuguese fire brigade in the World Fire Brigade Association CTIF.
Football is the most practiced sport in Portugal. Portuguese football has produced world-class players such as Eusébio, Nené, Paulo Sousa, Rui Costa, Nani, Cristiano Ronaldo, Vítor Baía, Deco, Fernando Meira or Luís Figo. In 2004, the European Football Championship was held in Portugal, where the Portuguese national team became the vice-champion of Europe after Greece. Reaching the third place at the 1966 World Cup was for a long time the greatest success in Portuguese football history, until winning the Euro 2016 in France. The top division, the Primeira Divisão, is dominated by the three most important clubs FC Porto, Sporting Lisbon, and the record champion Benfica Lisbon. The first winner of the Taça de Portugal National Cup was Académica Coimbra in 1939, who won it again in 2012, and has a special history thanks to its role as an oppositional student club of the 1960s. Other traditional clubs are Belenenses Lisbon, Boavista Porto and Vitória Setúbal. In addition to football, futsal and beach football are also widespread, and Portugal has achieved success there.
Portugal also has successes in canoeing, such as its silver medal at the 2012 Olympics. The Portuguese canoe manufacturer Nelo is the world market leader and also equipped the majority of the successful Olympic competitors in 2012. In the small town of Montemor-o-Velho, the Portuguese Canoe Association has its focus with its performance center. International events have also been held here several times, most recently the European Canoe Racing Championships in 2013.
Portuguese long-distance runners in particular were often successful
internationally. The most famous female runner is probably the Olympic
gold medalist Rosa Mota, while Carlos Lopes won the first Olympic gold
medal for Portugal in the marathon in 1984.
Portugal hosted the
2014 European Orienteering Championships. Since 1991, the Lisbon Half
Marathon, one of the world's most important half marathon races, has
also been held in the capital every year in March.
Near the seaside resort of Estoril, near the Atlantic coast, there is
the Circuito do Estoril, a well-known racetrack for car and motorcycle
racing, on which the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Portugal was held for many
years. The course in Estoril is also used as a test track for racing
cars.
In the port city of Portimão is the Autódromo Internacional
do Algarve, where the Superbike World Championship and the FIA GT
Championship are hosted. In 2020, the first Portuguese Formula 1 Grand
Prix since 1996 was held on this track.
There is a well-known
speedway stadium in the city of Santarém, which has also hosted
international championships, such as the European Speedway Club
Championship in 2000.
Since 1927, the Volta a Portugal has been organizing a nationwide race of popular cycling. Popular cyclists were the first professional athlete of Portugal in 1896, José Bento Pessoa, the two-time Tour de France third Joaquim Agostinho, or Alves Barbosa, who at the height of his popularity in 1958 became the title hero of the first work of Portuguese cinema in Cinemascope.
The coasts in the south and west offer ideal conditions for surfing
all year round. Some of the best surf spots in Europe attract surfers
from all over the world, for example in Ericeira, the world's third and
Europe's first surf reserve. Among the many other surf spots are the
traditional seaside resort Figueira da Foz, the beach Praia do Guincho
located near Lisbon, or the former fishing village Nazaré, which is
known for its particularly large wave. Since 2010, Portugal has been one
of the official stops of the WSL Championship Tour. Every year the
country hosts the "MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal" on the Supertubos beach in
Peniche. The best Portuguese surfer is Frederico Morais. He finished
14th in his rookie year on the WSL Championship Tour in 2017. Vasco
Ribeiro won the men's Junior World Championship in 2014 and Teresa
Bonvalot won the women's Junior European Championship in 2016 and 2017.
Sailing has a long tradition in Portugal. The Azores in particular
are known for this, for example with the Les Sables–Les Açores–Les
Sables regatta or the internationally known meeting place, the city of
Horta. Sailing events also take place in the Algarve and the greater
Lisbon area. For example, the 2007 ISAF Sailing World Championships were
held in Cascais, which is also known for its marina.
With the ATP Estoril (from 1990) for men and the WTA Oeiras
(1999-2014) for women, well-known international tennis tournaments of
the highest tournament series take place in Portugal. Previously held
tournaments were the ATP Porto (1995-1996) and WTA Porto (2001-2002). In
addition, some tournaments of the ATP Challenger Tour have been and will
be held in Portugal. Most recently, João Sousa from Guimarães was the
most promising Portuguese tennis player. On July 14, 2014, he reached
his best ranking in the tennis world ranking with the 35th place.
For Portuguese badminton, on the other hand, Caldas da Rainha is the
most important place, for example as a frequent venue for tournaments of
the Portugal International, and as the seat of the Portuguese Badminton
Association. The most successful player can be considered Isabel Rocha,
who won a total of 32 national titles in the 1960s and 1970s. José Bento
can be mentioned as a particularly successful male player. He came from
Lourenço Marques, the capital of the former Portuguese colony
Mozambique, now called Maputo, and dominated badminton in Portugal,
especially during the 1970s.
Rather unknown outside of Portugal are the snowboard championships in the ski resorts of the Serra da Estrela, or the Portuguese ice Hockey federation Federação Portuguesa de Desportos no Gelo.
Today
With 13 national championships, Joaquim Durão is the record
champion in chess. The most successful female player is Catarina Leite,
while chess grandmaster Luís Galego is probably the most important chess
player in Portugal at the moment.
The Portuguese Chess Federation
FPX (Federação Portuguesa de Xadrez) has been a member of the World
Federation FIDE since its foundation in 1927 and organizes the most
important tournaments in the country, including the National Cup (Taça
de Portugal) and the tripartite league for clubs (Campeonatos Nacionais
por Equipa), with the Primeira Divisão as the top division. Today, over
100 chess clubs and about 4,000 players are organized in FPX in
Portugal.
History
Chess became especially popular in Portugal
in the 14th and 15th centuries. King D. João I praised the game of chess
in the early 14th century in his book Livro de Montaria as an excellent
military training, and D. João II liked to play, especially when
traveling.
in 1512, the Italian-written, Europe-wide distributed
chess book Libro da imparare giocare a scachi by the Portuguese Damiano
de Odemira was published in Rome. In Pietro Carrera's work Il Gioco
degli Scacchi, published in 1617, there was also a list of the best
chess players. On the 32nd place, the Portuguese King D. Sebastião I was
performed there, after Ruy López and before the Spanish King Philip II,
who had hosted the world's first international chess tournament in 1575.
Damiano de Odemira was placed on the 25th place. However, he was listed
as a Spaniard, since Portugal had fallen to Spain by succession in 1580
(Iberian Union, until 1640).
José Oliveira de Sousa is the most successful Portuguese darts
player. In 2020, he won the Grand Slam of Darts, which means the first
victory of a Portuguese at a darts major tournament.
Portuguese
athletes are internationally successful in beach volleyball and
especially in roller hockey, where they are alternately record roller
hockey world champions with Spain. By contrast, traditional sports in
Portugal, such as the Jogo do pau, are largely unknown internationally.
Rugby union is also becoming increasingly popular. The Portuguese
national team qualified for a Rugby Union World Cup for the first time
in 2007, but at the tournament in France they finished in last place in
the group stage; in 2023 they managed to qualify again, with one win and
one draw each in the preliminary round. Portugal is one of the
participants in the European Rugby Union Championship, where it meets
other emerging national teams. In 2002-2004 it was possible to win this
tournament for the first time. The home stadium is the Estádio
Universitário de Lisboa in Lisbon.
Portugal hosted a large number
of international sporting events, in addition to the European Football
Championship in 2004, such various tournaments as the European Men's
Handball Championship in 1994, the World Handball Championship in 2003
or the games of the Portuguese-speaking countries, the Jogos da
Lusofonia in 2009 can be mentioned. European Inline Speed Skating
Championships have been held in Portugal several times, such as in 1989,
1995, 2001 and 2007.
Special Olympics Portugal was founded in
1987 and participated in Special Olympics World Games several times.
Starting from medieval and monastic collections, Portugal has a long
library tradition. Thus, a variety of types of libraries have developed
to this day, such as scientific libraries, university libraries, public
libraries, libraries of central administration and special libraries.
The exact number of libraries and the total stock of media are not known
(the 1986 LIB2 study identified 556 Portuguese libraries). Systematic
and methodological work on the promotion of public librarianship and
library science began at the end of the 19th century.
In the time
of the Estado Novo (1928-1974), the importance of libraries and the
library work itself were severely restricted by censorship and
restrictions. As a result, there are still shortcomings in the
development of the education and library system to this day. The
decades-long dictatorship favored a lack of popular education and
illiteracy. After the carnation Revolution in 1974, there was a
democratization in the educational and cultural sphere.
Systematic adult education and the promotion of reading were carried out
against the lack of popular education and illiteracy. The worrying
situation of public libraries has led to numerous initiatives and new
regulations within the library system, e.g. the "Manifesto of Public
Reading" in 1983. In 1986, this was substantiated by legislation on the
creation and coordination of a network of public reading. At the same
time, the automation of library work, which began relatively late in
Portugal, and the use of modern information technology, initially in
university libraries and the National Library "Biblioteca Nacional de
Lisboa", came about.
The latter was the first public library,
which was founded in 1796 as the Royal Public Court Library. For
example, it operates the national bibliographic database PORBASE. It
contains over 1 million title entries, 800,000 author entries from about
134 libraries and documentation centres and the Portuguese National
Bibliography. The National Library and probably almost all other
libraries work with the CDS/ISIS library system and the UNIMARC data
exchange format.
An archivist and librarian education is possible
by studying at the state universities of Coimbra, Lisbon and Porto. Some
institutions, some of which are state-owned, take over coordination
tasks and support the promotion of the Portuguese book and the
cooperation and support of libraries.
Through extensive
innovative work in recent years, the Portuguese library system has
managed to connect to European and international standards. Still
existing deficits are to be further reduced by promoting reading and
libraries and by international cooperation.
Four main TV channels can be received by antenna throughout the
country: RTP1 and RTP2, which are operated by the state-owned Portuguese
radio Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) and the private channels SIC
(Grupo Sonae) and TVI (Media Capital, of which 32% is RTL Group). In
addition to the culturally oriented RTP2, the program of these channels
is heavily determined by Brazilian and Portuguese telenovelas,
especially in the evening; the newscasts are usually one to two hours
long and are highly focused on the daily events in Portugal.
Foreign-language feature films are rarely dubbed in view of the small
domestic market, but are shown with subtitles. The international channel
RTP Internacional can also be received in Central Europe and shows a
selection of the four programmes, while RTP África reports from the
Portuguese-speaking countries of Africa. In addition, there are a
variety of cable channels, to mention in particular Sports TV and
Brazilian channels. There are local stations in Porto and Lisbon, and
RTP also has its own broadcasting stations in Madeira and the Azores.
There are about 150 radio stations in Portugal. The stations of the
RTP, the Catholic Rádio Renascença and the TSF can be received
nationwide. The RTP can also be heard over shortwave in Central Europe,
but only in Portuguese.
Among the numerous newspapers that are
printed in Portugal, a consolidation and concentration process is taking
place, in which many of the small sheets have to give up. Important
daily newspapers are the conservative-liberal Diário de Notícias, the
left-liberal Público (both from Lisbon) and the Jornal de Notícias from
Porto, as well as the tabloid Correio da Manhã. Important weekly
newspapers are Expresso and Sol, the political weekly magazine Visão and
the music newspaper Blitz are also to be mentioned. Jornal de Letras is
one of the most important cultural newspapers in the country, while
Jornal de Negócios and the Diário Económico are the most important
business newspapers. Destak and Metro are the most important free
newspapers in Portugal.
Sports newspapers have very large
circulation, which are published daily and deal almost exclusively with
football – the most significant are O Jogo, A Bola and Record. The A
Bola, which is close to Benfica Lisbon, is the highest-circulation
newspaper in Portugal.
The operators of the Football Leaks site
are whistleblowers from Portugal.
The numerous local newspapers
are also of importance. Among the regional newspapers, OMIRANTE and the
Diário As Beiras can be mentioned.
In the field of the gossip
press, the weekly magazines Maria and Nova Gente are the highest
circulation. The most important party newspaper is the Avante! from the
Portuguese Communist Party.
In 2021, 82.3 percent of the
inhabitants of Portugal used the Internet.