Almodôvar

Almodôvar (Portuguese pronunciation: [almuˈdovaɾ] (listen) or [almuˈðovɐɾ]; Arabic: المدوّر‎, romanized: al-Mudawwar, lit. 'the Round one') is a town and a municipality in the District of Beja, Portugal. The population in 2011 was 7,449,[1] in an area of 777.88 km².[2]

For other uses, see Almodóvar.
Almodôvar
Municipality
Flag
Coat of arms
Coordinates: 37°30′N 8°03′W
Country Portugal
RegionAlentejo
Intermunic. comm.Baixo Alentejo
DistrictBeja
Parishes6
Government
 • PresidentAntónio Bota (PS)
Area
 • Total777.88 km2 (300.34 sq mi)
Population
 (2011)
 • Total7,449
 • Density9.6/km2 (25/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC±00:00 (WET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+01:00 (WEST)
Local holidaySaint John
June 24
Websitehttp://www.cm-almodovar.pt

The present Mayor is António Bota, a member of the Socialist Party.

The town's Museum of Southwestern Writing is featured on episode 1 of the three part documentary The Celts: Blood, Iron and Sacrifice, which was broadcast by the BBC in 2015, and hosted by Alice Roberts and Neil Oliver, featuring stone tables containing what some archeologists believe to be a proto-Celtic language.[3]

Parishes

The municipality is subdivided into the following parishes:[4]

History

The village of Almodôvar is signaled in medieval Islamic cartography under the name al-Mudawwar meaning "thing in round" or "surrounded in round".[5] The settlement was rebuilt at the time of the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, with walls surrounding it and a castle inside. Remains of these have, however, disappeared.

Almodôvar received its first Foral (Town Charter) on April 17, 1285 by order of King Dinis of Portugal, confirmed by a new Foral on June 1, 1512, by order of King Manuel I of Portugal.

Geography

The Almodôvar area is situated in an area of transition between the Alentejo peneplain, in the northernmost part of the municipality, and the hills of the Serra do Caldeirão to the south of its territory. The Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB) which begins in Aljustrel and spreads through the lower Alentejo extending into Southern Spain crosses the area of the municipality.

References
  1. Instituto Nacional de Estatística
  2. Eurostat Archived October 7, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Canelas, Lucinda. "Escreveram-nos da serra há 2500 anos, mas ainda não sabemos o que nos queriam dizer". PÚBLICO. Retrieved 2017-02-05.
  4. Diário da República. "Law nr. 11-A/2013, pages 552 11-12" (pdf) (in Portuguese). Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  5. "História". Município de Almodôvar. Archived from the original on 2016-12-20. Retrieved 2017-02-05.


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