Golegã () is a town and municipality in

Santarém District The District of Santarém ( ) is a district of Portugal, located in Portugal's West and Tagus Valley region. The district capital is the city of Santarém. The district is the 3rd largest in Portugal, with an area of , and a population of 475 ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 5,913,including the parish

Pombalinho Pombalinho () is a village and a civil parish in the municipality of Golegã, Portugal. The population in 2011 was 448, in an area of 7.70 km2. History Located on the right bank of the Tagus River, 22 kilometers northeast of the city of San ...

, that changed from the municipality of Santarém to Golegã in 2013Instituto Nacional de Estatística
/ref> in an area of 84.32 km². The present Mayor is Rui Manuel Lince Singeis Medinas Duarte, elected by the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

. The municipal holiday is

Ascension Day The Feast of the Ascension of Jesus Christ (also called the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, Ascension Day, Ascension Thursday, or sometimes Holy Thursday) commemorates the Christian belief of the bodily Ascension of Jesus into Heaven. It ...

Historical sights

The main historical sight of Golegã is its main church

Igreja Matriz da Golegã Igreja Matriz da Golegã is a church in the town Golegã, Portugal. It is classified as a National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country' ...

, built in the early 16th century in

Manueline The Manueline (, ), occasionally known as Portuguese late Gothic, is the sumptuous, composite Portuguese architectural style originating in the 16th century, during the Portuguese Renaissance and Age of Discoveries. Manueline architecture inco ...

(Portuguese late Gothic) style. The remarkable main portal and the ribbed vaulting inside the main chapel are its most important artistic features. Near Golegã village is located the ''Quinta da Cardiga'', a

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

with its origin in a 12th-century donation to the

Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...

. Originally the site of a castle, the property was remodelled in the 16th century into a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

rural palace.

Geography

Parishes

Administratively, the municipality is divided into 3 civil parishes ('' freguesias''): *

Azinhaga Azinhaga do Ribatejo or simply Azinhaga () is a village and a civil parish in the municipality of Golegã, Santarém District, Lezíria do Tejo (roughly the same territory of the historical province of Ribatejo), Portugal. The population of Azinhag ...

* Golegã *

Population

Economy

The main agricultural productions in the municipality are

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

and ''

Beta vulgaris ''Beta vulgaris'' (beet) is a species of flowering plant in the subfamily Betoideae of the family Amaranthaceae. Economically, it is the most important crop of the large order Caryophyllales. It has several cultivar groups: the sugar beet, of gre ...

''. The area is a reputed animal breeding center and an internationally renowned

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

and

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...

market. Golegã is considered the capital of the

(''Capital do Cavalo''), and it has been the site for the gathering of breeders since at least the 18th century. Two fairs take place every November in Golegã: The ''Feira Nacional do Cavalo'' (National Horse Fair) and the ''Feira Internacional do Cavalo Lusitano'' (International Lusitano Horse Fair), dedicated to the

Pure Blood Lusitano The Lusitano, also known as the Pure Blood Lusitano or PSL (''Puro Sangue Lusitano''), is a Portuguese horse breed. Horses were known to be present on the Iberian Peninsula as far back as 20,000 BC, and by 800 BC the region was renowned for ...

Notable persons

Carlos Relvas Carlos Augusto de Mascarenhas Relvas de Campos (13 November 1838 – 23 January 1894), more commonly known simply as Carlos Relvas, was a wealthy Portuguese landowner, and sportsman. He is perhaps best known as a talented amateur Portuguese-sty ...

(1838 in Golegã – 1894) a wealthy landowner and amateur

bullfighter A bullfighter or matador () is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. ''Torero'' () or ''toureiro'' (), both from Latin ''taurarius'', are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter, and describe all the performers in the activ ...

. *

José Relvas José Maria de Mascarenhas Relvas de Campos ( Golegã, Golegã, 5 March 1858 – Alpiarça, Casa dos Patudos, 31 October 1929; , was a Portuguese politician and Prime Minister of Portugal. Personal life Jose was married to Eugénia de Lourei ...

(1858 in Golegã – 1929) a politician and 70th

Prime Minister of Portugal The prime minister of Portugal (; ) is the head of government of Portugal. As head of government, the prime minister coordinates the actions of ministers, represents the Government of Portugal to the other bodies of state, is accountable to Ass ...

in 1919. *

José Saramago José de Sousa Saramago (; 16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010) was a Portuguese people, Portuguese writer. He was the recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony [with which ...

(1922 in

– 2010) writer, the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature. *Manuel Bento (1948 in Golegã – 2007) football Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper with 63 caps for Portugal national football team, Portugal including participation in the

1984 UEFA European Football Championship The 1984 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in France from 12 to 27 June 1984. It was the seventh UEFA European Championship, a competition held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. At the time, only eight countries ...

and the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-tea ...

as well as 324 club caps, mainly for

S.L. Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904, as ''Sport Lisboa'', Benfica is one of the " ...

References

External links

Municipality official website

Feira da Golega.com
*
Feira nacionale do cavalo (photo reporting)

Photos from Golegã
Municipalities of Portugal Towns in Portugal Populated places in Santarém District {{Santarém-geo-stub