Póvoa de Santa Iria is a city and former civil parish in the municipality of

Vila Franca de Xira Vila Franca de Xira () is a city and municipality in the Lisbon District in Portugal. The population in 2021 was 137,659, in an area of 318.19 km2. Situated on both banks of the Tagus River, 32 km north-east of the Portuguese capital ...

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 ...

. Since 2013, it is part of the civil parish Póvoa de Santa Iria e Forte da Casa. Its population in 2011 was 29,348.

History

In 1336, the land where present-day Póvoa de Santa Iria is located was designated part of the Póvoa

Majorat ''Majorat'' () is a French term for an arrangement giving the right of succession to a specific parcel of property associated with a title of nobility to a single heir, based on male primogeniture. A majorat (fideicommis) would be inherited by t ...

(''Morgado da Póvoa'') by Vicente Afonso Valente, for the benefit of his brother Lourenço Afonso Valente. For more than three centuries, the place was called Póvoa de São Martinho. After the extinction of the majorats in Portugal in 1863, the settlement obtained its current name, Póvoa de Santa Iria. The settlement had a strong connection with the

Tagus river The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see 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, to ...

and its population had fishing, salt extraction and river transport as their main activities. In 1916 the civil parish (''

freguesia ''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 Por ...

'') of Póvoa de Santa Iria was created, as part of the

Loures Loures () is a city and a municipality in Portugal which is part of the District and Metropolitan area of Lisbon. It is the fifth most populous municipality in the country, with a total population of 201,632. History There was early human sett ...

municipality. In 1926, the civil parish was detached from the Loures municipality and integrated in the

municipality. In the second half of the 20th century, a sharp population increase occurred in Póvoa de Santa Iria and the settlement was mainly converted into a

commuter town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many ...

. Following its expansion, Póvoa de Santa Iria was formally designated a town (''vila'') in 1985 and a city (''cidade'') in 1999. After a major territorial administration reorganization in Portugal in 2013, the civil parish of Póvoa de Santa Iria was merged with the neighboring civil parish of

Forte da Casa Forte da Casa is a town and former civil parish in the municipality of Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal. Since 2013, it is part of the civil parish Póvoa de Santa Iria e Forte da Casa. Its population in 2011 was 11,056 in an area of 3.96 km2. ...

. In November 2014, Póvoa de Santa Iria was one of the locations most affected by a legionellosis outbreak in the Vila Franca de Xira municipality.

Transportation

Póvoa de Santa Iria is served by the Póvoa train station, which is part of the

Linha do Norte Linha do Norte is the Portuguese main railway line that connects the two main Portuguese cities, Lisbon and Porto. Its length is . It goes through some other important cities like Vila Franca de Xira, Santarém, Entroncamento, Pombal, Coi ...

. It is an important point of connection with the city of Lisbon. The city is also served by multiple bus lines from Rodoviária de Lisboa, connecting with other points in the municipalities of

and Lisbon.

Sports

Póvoa de Santa Iria's football club is União Atlético Povoense, which competes in the First Division of the

Lisbon Football Association The Lisbon Football Association (''Associação de Futebol de Lisboa'', abrv. ''AF Lisboa'') is the district governing body for the all football competitions in the Portuguese district of Lisbon. It is also the regulator of the clubs registered in ...

.{{Cite web, title=At. Povoense - Playmakerstats, url=https://www.playmakerstats.com/equipa.php?id=3881, url-status=live, access-date=17 October 2021, website=Playmakerstats

References

External links

Junta de Freguesia Póvoa de Santa Iria e Forte da Casa
(in Portuguese) Cities in Portugal Former parishes of Vila Franca de Xira