Santa Bárbara de Padrões is a Portuguese town/parish within the boundaries of the municipality of
Castro Verde. The population in 2011 was 943,
[Instituto Nacional de Estatística]
/ref> in an area of 66.31 km².[Áreas das freguesias, concelhos, distritos e país]
/ref>
The landscape of the parish provides a more rugged terrain than the rest of the district being an area of transition between the plains of the Sierra and the White Field of the Caldeirão.
The economic life of the parish is closely linked to the subsoil wealth mined at the Neves-Corvo mine
Neves-Corvo mine is a zinc-copper mine 15 km southeast of Castro Verde, Portugal and 220 km southeast of Lisbon, in the district of Beja (Baixo Alentejo). It has a dedicated rail link to the port of Setúbal. The mine is principally acce ...
that is part of the largest Pyrite
The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Iron, FeSulfur, S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral.
Pyrite's metallic Luster (mineralogy), lust ...
belt of Europe, the Iberian Pyrite Belt.
Mine activity in this region goes back as far as 1700 B.C, with remains of mining structures dating back to Roman times when the area played a significant role in the expansion of Roman metallurgy. This southern area of Lusitania
Lusitania (; ) was an ancient Iberian Roman province located where modern Portugal (south of the Douro river) and
a portion of western Spain (the present Extremadura and the province of Salamanca) lie. It was named after the Lusitani or Lusita ...
, being a Roman province for several centuries, was an abundant source of mineral ore which included Gold, Silver, Copper, Tin, Lead and Iron.
References
*História e histórias-Castro Verde, Joaquim Boiça/Rui Mateus, Artinvento, Região de Turismo da Planicie Dourada/Câmara Municipal de Castro Verde;
External links
Town Hall official website
(Portuguese)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Barbara de Padroes
Freguesias of Castro Verde