Golegã () is a town and municipality in

Santarém District The District of Santarém ( pt, Distrito de Santarém ) is a district of Portugal, located in Portugal's ''Centro Region''. The district capital is the city of Santarém. The district is the 3rd largest in Portugal, with an area of , and a po ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. 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 t ...

. The municipal holiday is Ascension Day.

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's ...

, built in the early 16th century in

Manueline The Manueline ( pt, estilo manuelino, ), 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. Manuel ...

(Portuguese late

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

) 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 held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

with its origin in a 12th-century donation to the Knights Templar. Originally the site of a castle, the property was remodelled in the 16th century into a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

rural palace.

Geography

Parishes

Administratively, the municipality is divided into 3 civil parishes (''

freguesias ''Freguesia'' (), usually translated as "parish" or "civil parish", is the third-level administrative subdivision of Portugal, as defined by the 1976 Constitution. It is also the designation for local government jurisdictions in the former Port ...

''): *

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 Azinh ...

* Golegã *

Population

Economy

The main agricultural productions in the municipality are

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

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 gr ...

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

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

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 million yea ...

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 fo ...

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 bullfighter, an ...

(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 activity ...

. *

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 70th Prime Minister of Portugal. = Personal life = Jose was in spouse with Eugénia ...

(1858 in Golegã – 1929) a politician and 70th Prime Minister of Portugal in 1919. *

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

(1922 in

– 2010) writer, the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature. *

Manuel Bento Manuel Galrinho Bento (25 June 1948 – 1 March 2007) was a Portuguese professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Bento was best known for his 20-year spell at Benfica, having retired well into his 40s after appearing in nearly 650 off ...

(1948 in Golegã – 2007) football

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

with 63 caps for

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 as well as 324 club caps, mainly for

S.L. Benfica Sport Lisboa e 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'', Be ...

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