This is a list of cities in Portugal. In Portugal, a city (Portuguese: cidade) is an honorific term given to locations that meet several criteria, such as having a minimum number of inhabitants, good infrastructure (schools, medical care, cultural and sports facilities), or have a major historical importance. The country's demographic expansion of the 1980s prompted the elevation of several towns to city status and, as of 2006, 151 locations in Portugal are considered a city.
In Portugal, the city is not an administrative division, therefore a city generally does not necessarily correspond to a municipality, with the exception of the entirely urban municipalities, such as Lisbon, Porto, Funchal,Amadora,Entroncamento e São João da Madeira. Some municipalities may even contain more than one city: the municipality of Paredes includes the most cities (four cities) within its municipality: Paredes, Gandra, Rebordosa and São Salvador de Lordelo). On the other hand, some the least populated municipalities contain no cities at all. Equally, a city does not necessarily correspond to a parish, the lowest level administrative division in Portugal and several cities are composed by more than one parish.
Some curious cases:The city of Anadia belongs to the parish of Arcos, the city of Estarreja is in the Beduído parish and the city of Felgueiras in the parish of Margarite, a.k.a Santa Eulalia. Onother particular case is the town of Sintra, which—despite being currently the second largest urban area of the country, and containing two cities within its municipality (Agualva-Cacém and Queluz)—still holds the rank of vila, by wish of its elected officials, who refuse to let it become a city. Also, the towns of Cascais and Oeiras, Moita, Palmela, Mafra, Lousã, Lousada, Nazare, Alenquer, Alfena, Fânzeres, Avintes, Belas and others, densely populated, are officially towns, not cities. Also interesting to note is that some cities have fewer than 2,000 inhabitants—such as the case of Meda and Miranda do Douro while the towns (vilas)of Algueirão-Mem Martins, Rio de Mouro, Cascais, Oeiras, Sesimbra, Baixa da Banheira, Águas Santas, Senhora da Hora, Corroios, Sintra, Pinhal Novo and others have over 20,000 inhabitants. Even some villages of have over 20.000 residents, ei Estoril.
Until 1910, a location was proclaimed city by royal charter, which happened 25 times to current Portuguese cities (royal charters were also granted to cities of the Portuguese Empire; for example, São Paulo in 1711). During the Portuguese First Republic, the process was transferred to the Parliament, which elevated three towns to the category of city. The dictatorial Estado Novo regime proclaimed seven cities on the Portuguese mainland (as well as some more in the colonies), this time by government decree. After the Carnation revolution, proclamation of cities returned to Parliament and now, Portugal has 151 cities, one of the consequences being that the title no longer holds the prestige it once had.
Some cities have an alternate name such as the city of Trofa is often known as Bougado, others have a short or abbreviated name like:Caldas, Gaia, Feira, Figueira, Régua, Olhão, Santa Comba, Famalicão, Foz Coa, Miranda, etc; Miranda do Douro in mirandese language(lingua mirandesa) is Miranda de I Douro Yet another peculiar case: the city of Vila Baleira is in Porto Santo municipality (and island).In fact some localaties have "Vila" in their names, but are actually cities.{list below}.
Eight locations have been always considered cities since Portugal became an independent kingdom (de facto 1128): Braga, Coimbra, Lamego, Porto and Viseu, as well as Évora, Lisbon and Silves, which were annexed at a later date. Guarda was the first city proclaimed as part of the independent kingdom, in 1199.
The most recent cities were proclaimed on 12 June 2009: Valença, Senhora da Hora, São Pedro do Sul, Samora Correia, and Borba
The most populous cities are: Lisbon (Lisboa), Oporto (Porto), Amadora, Gaia, Braga, Coimbra, Setubal, Almada and Funchal.
Contents |
List
| Crest | City | Municipality | Population[1] | A city since |
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Notes
- ^ Although the cities list doesn't indicate the cities' population, it indicates the parishes that compose them, therefore, this number is the sum of the population of the parishes. The population data was taken from the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities and is from 2004.
- Except the city of Figueira da Foz
References
- "Cidades Portuguesas". Instituto Nacional de Estatística. http://www.ine.pt/prodserv/nomenclaturas/refter/cid-vil/cidades_ano.asp?ano=200212&anoD=2002. Retrieved on 2006-07-08.
- "Municípios Portugueses". Associação Nacional de Municípios Portugueses. http://www.anmp.pt/. Retrieved on 2006-03-27.
See also
- Subdivisions of Portugal
- List of towns in Portugal
- List of municipalities of Portugal
- List of parishes of Portugal
- Regions in Portugal
- List of cities in Europe
External links
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This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
