Aguiar da Beira Municipality

Aguiar da Beira

The terrain around Caldas-da-Cavaca, showing the rugged rock-outcroppings near the train terminal

Flag	Coat of arms

Coordinates: 40°49′03″N 7°32′36″W / 40.81750°N 7.54333°WCoordinates: 40°49′03″N 7°32′36″W / 40.81750°N 7.54333°W

Country

Portugal

Government

• President

Augusto Fernando Andrade (PPD-PSD)

Area

• Total

206.77 km² (79.83 sq mi)

Population (2011)

• Total

5,473

• Density

26/km² (69/sq mi)

Time zone

WET/WEST (UTC+0/+1)

Area code

292

Website

http://www.cm-aguiardabeira.pt

Aguiar da Beira (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɐɣiˈaɾ ðɐ ˈβɐjɾɐ]) is a municipality in Guarda District in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 5,473, in an area of 206.77 km².

The present Mayor is Augusto Fernando Andrade, elected by the Social Democratic Party. The municipal holiday is February 10.

Analise of archaeological patrimony in the region suggest that human occupation in the region extends to the 4 millennium B.C., from investigations at the megalithic site of Carapito and the Dolmen of Carapito. Within the proto-historic period, three sites (Castro de Carapito, Castro da Gralheira and Castro das Albelhas) were primary settlements in the region that collected small populations. On these sites were evidence of Roman tiles (specifically Castro da Gralheira and Castro das Albelhas), suggesting a longer period of settlement, beyond the Roman occupation.

Roman presence in the region also included vestiges, as in the case of granite edicules, in the locality of Penaverde (later conserved in the National Arcaheological Museum in Lisbon), and various ashlars reused in the construction the medieval castle of Aguiar da Beira, as well as the typical of other localities in the municipality in the construction of residences in the region.

After the 5th century, although during a period of instability caused by barbarian invasions, later Muslim armies and wars of Reconquest, settlement of continued in the region, during the later Medieval Age. This is evident from the tombstones and burial grounds, as well as sarcophagus in necropoles in Aguiar da Beira and Moreira. This included various isolate sites, such as in Penaverde or Mosteiro, or alternately in Colherinhas, Pinheiro and Sequeiros, that point to human presence between the 7th and 12th century. The early Middle Ages in the area resulted from a period of pacification, the reinforcement of local administration and development of strucutres (judicial and socio-economic) that included the concession of a forals (charters) to reinforce settlement. This is how Aguiar da Beira, and Penaverde, received their first forals in the 13th century, in order to develop and fix populations in the region. At the beginning of the 16th century, Carapito was elevated to the status of municipality, in a foral issued by King D. Manuel I. A letter to establish a fair in the town of Aguiar da Beira was issued during the reign of King D. Dinis in 1308, which reveals the importance of the settlement, in terms of its dynamic economic role in the region.

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Wikipedia