Aljezur
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Aljezur is a small town ( Vila ) in southern Portugal. It has 3370 inhabitants (as at 30 June 2011) and belongs to the district of Faro. The area west of the town is part of the national park Parque Natural do Southwest Alentejo and Costa Vicentina.
History
The old town is dominated by a Moorish castle ruins from the 10th century. Here there were traces of settlement dating back to the Iron Age. The Almoravids and Almohads left the castle, which is located in a loop of the river Ribeira de Aljezur, significantly extend between the 11th and the first half of the 13th century. Since then, the outer walls are 1.5 m thick, the corner towers 9 m high. Small forts and watchtowers extended the defense system into the surrounding countryside. From this time a rainwater cistern, which has a length of 7.3, a width of 5.7 and an average internal height of 3.8 m originates beyond. An inner and an outer layer of mortar of 4 cm thickness made the building watertight.
Aljezur was snatched around 1249 by the Order of Santiago under the direction of Dom Paio Peres Correia the Almohads. The Order built on the castle storehouse and barracks and controlled the area around the fortress in a wide radius. Alfonso X of Castile and Alfonso III. from Portugal in 1267 agreed in the Treaty of Badajoz on the rights to numerous castles in the Algarve, Aljezur which went to Dom Dinis of Portugal, the son of Alfonso III.
1280 admitted Dinis Aljezur a city rights, which he took over half of the maintenance of the castle, the other half took the Knights of Aljezur. At the present site of the 5th October, a town hall, in which the City Museum, the Museo Municipal is located since 2000, was born. At the end of the 15th century the castle lost its military function and was abandoned.
On the slopes below the castle a city had emerged, which reached down to the river. There was an important port, for here there was south to Lagos the only natural harbor of the rugged Atlantic coast; also the river was navigable as the sole until it silted up in the 16th and 17th centuries. The trade contacts reached to Flanders in the north and to Castile, but especially to Tavira and Lisbon. This cloth played an important role, but also dried fruits, honey, olive oil, spices and medicine Alien. The fees and charges were withdrawn in its own Customs House. The revenue from the fees for fishing went to the municipal hospital. It was fished both in the rivers, as well as on the Atlantic.
In the river valley were extensive fields of grain, and the returns were processed at the mills on the river into flour. The grain was carried out on the African forts in Portugal. The fleet of Portugal with biscoito, a kind of hardtack was fitted. Horticulture and viticulture traditional export products and provided the regional market. There were pigs, cattle, sheep and goats, as well as melons, cilantro, beans and other agricultural products. In the steeper areas, beekeeping and hunting was encouraged.
A sharp incision, represented the 1755 earthquake that affected virtually all of Portugal. Away Across the river and about a kilometer from the Old Town, the New Town to the Igreja Nova, on the initiative of the Bishop of Faro, Francisco Gomes de Avelar (1739-1816), who after 1755 would provide a safer place to live of the population. Here lives the majority of the population living increasingly on tourism. However, the market remains an important distribution center for the sparsely populated region, added administrative tasks as well as cultural.
Management
Circle Aljezur
Aljezur is the administrative seat of the homonymous district. The neighboring districts are (clockwise starting from the north ): Odemira, Monchique, Lagos, Vila do Bispo and the Atlantic Ocean.
The following parishes ( freguesias ) lying in circle Aljezur:
- Aljezur
- Bordeira
- Odeceixe
- Rogil
Demographics
Twinning
- Germany Germany: Kuernach (since 1987)
- Cape Verde Cape Verde Boavista (since 2004)