Caparica is a former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the municipality (''

concelho Concelho () is the Portuguese-language term for municipality, referring to the territorial subdivision in local government. In comparison, the word ''município'' () refers to the organs of State. This differentiation is still in use in Portugal a ...

'') of

Almada Almada () is a city and a municipality in Portugal, located on the southern margin of the Tagus River, on the opposite side of the river from Lisbon. The two cities are connected by the 25 de Abril Bridge. The population in 2011 was 174,030, in a ...

Lisbon metropolitan area The Lisbon Metropolitan Area ( pt, Área Metropolitana de Lisboa; abbreviated as AML) is a metropolitan area in Portugal centered on Lisbon, the capital and largest city of the country. The metropolitan area, covering 18 municipalities is the l ...

, Portugal. In 2013, the parish merged with the civil parish of Trafaria into the new parish

Caparica e Trafaria Caparica e Trafaria is a civil parish in the municipality of Almada Almada () is a city and a municipality in Portugal, located on the southern margin of the Tagus River, on the opposite side of the river from Lisbon. The two cities are connecte ...

. The population in 2011 was 20,454, in an area of 11.02 km².Eurostat

Location

Caparica is situated on the

Setúbal Peninsula The Setúbal Peninsula (Portuguese: ) is a peninsula in the Lisbon Region of Portugal. The peninsula is named after one of its larger cities, Setúbal, and is bordered by three bodies of water, the Atlantic Ocean in the west and southwest, the Tag ...

, south of the

Tagus The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see #Name, below) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections ...

River. On the opposite bank of the Tagus lies

Belém Belém (; Portuguese for Bethlehem; initially called Nossa Senhora de Belém do Grão-Pará, in English Our Lady of Bethlehem of Great Pará) often called Belém of Pará, is a Brazilian city, capital and largest city of the state of Pará in t ...

, a civil parish of Lisbon. Caparica lies west of the central part of Almada Municipality and west of the

25 de Abril Bridge The 25 de Abril Bridge ( pt, Ponte 25 de Abril, 25th of April Bridge, ) is a suspension bridge connecting the city of Lisbon, capital of Portugal, to the municipality of Almada on the left (south) bank of the Tagus river. It has a total len ...

History

The name ''Caparica'' is probably derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word ''capparis'', which means

caper ''Capparis spinosa'', the caper bush, also called Flinders rose, is a perennial plant that bears rounded, fleshy leaves and large white to pinkish-white flowers. The plant is best known for the edible flower buds (capers), used as a seasoning ...

. Caparica may have been founded during the Roman conquest of the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

. It became a parish in 1472, and it became a town on September 27, 1985.

Localities

The parish of Caparica includes the following localities: *Vila Nova de Caparica *Capuchos *Funchalinho *Areeiro *Granja *Fómega *Alcaniça *Raposo *Pera *Monte de Caparica *Torre *Fonte Santa *Serrado *Pilotos *Costas de Cão *

Banática Banática is a small town at Almada, Portugal. Its name may derive from the Arabic language word for prince. It is the first port at the Tejo. It has a Repsol oil refinery, a sports club, Clube Recreativo e Desportivo de Banática, and a coast con ...

Porto Brandão Porto Brandão is a locality in the freguesia of Caparica e Trafaria, Almada Municipality, Portugal. With an excellent strategic location, it is situated by the Tejo river. Monuments * Edifício do Lazareto, now in ruins. Until the 1990s, th ...

*Lazarim

Points of interest

*Convent of the Capuchins *Church of Nossa Senhora do Monte de Caparica * Forte de São Sebastião da Caparica

References

Former parishes of Almada {{Setúbal-geo-stub