Santa Marta de Penaguião ( or ) is a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

municipality in the district of

Vila Real Vila Real () is the capital and largest city of the Vila Real District, in the North region. It is also the seat of the Douro intermunicipal community and of the Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro historical province. The Vila Real municipality cover ...

, in the northern region of

Douro The Douro (, , ; es, Duero ; la, Durius) is the highest-flow river of the Iberian Peninsula. It rises near Duruelo de la Sierra in Soria Province, central Spain, meanders south briefly then flows generally west through the north-west part of ...

. The population in 2011 was 7,356,Instituto Nacional de Estatística
/ref> in an area of 69.28 km².Áreas das freguesias, concelhos, distritos e país
/ref>

History

The history of Santa Marta de Penaguião is affirmed by vestiges of the castros that have been discovered in Fontes, Lobrigos, Cumieira, Louredo and Medrões, which were settled prior to the establishment of the

Kingdom of Portugal The Kingdom of Portugal ( la, Regnum Portugalliae, pt, Reino de Portugal) was a monarchy in the western Iberian Peninsula and the predecessor of the modern Portuguese Republic. Existing to various extents between 1139 and 1910, it was also kno ...

. Some of the

toponymy Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

in the region also presupposes the existences of tribal clans in this Douro valley region. The municipality of Santa Marta de Penaguião were part of the ''Terras de Penaguião'', an administrative division that existed during early Middle Ages (9th-10th century) that extended between the Douro and Corgo watersheds, including the Serra do Marão and the ''Terras de Panóias'' (today Vila Real). Comprehensively, this included the current municipality, in addition to portions of the municipalities of Peso da Régua and Vila Real. During the reign of

Afonso Henriques Afonso I of PortugalOr also ''Affonso'' (Archaic Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonso'' (Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonsus'' (Latin version), sometimes rendered in English as ''Alphonzo'' or ''Alphonse'', depending on the Spanish or French inf ...

the region was governed by Moço Viegas, son of Egas Moniz. King Sancho I issued a charter ( pt,

foral 200px, Foral of Castro Verde - Portugal The word ''foral'' ({{IPA-pt, fuˈɾaɫ, eu, plural: ''forais'') is a noun derived from the Portuguese word ''foro'', ultimately from Latin ''forum'', equivalent to Spanish ''fuero'', Galician ''foro'', Ca ...

) in 1202, and King Manual I re-issued a new foral on 15 December 1519. The forals provided detailed explanations of the rights, privileges and responsibilities of the local landowners, covered within the limits of the municipality. During the 17th-18th century there was a marked increase in the homes, estates, churches and patrimony constructed in the municipality, while documents refer to expensive land rents obtained by seigneurial landowners. This was primarily due to export of wine and the cultivation of vineyards, which occupied a great part of the terraced landholdings of the local gentlemen. This success also brought a lot of opportunism, the mixing of castes, and later, the collapse of wine sales, as the quality deteriorated. In order to overcome these problems, and in order to rejuvenate exports, (through the influence of the

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...

João de Mansilha and the

Marquess of Pombal Count of Oeiras () was a Portuguese title of nobility created by a royal decree, dated July 15, 1759, by King Joseph I of Portugal, and granted to Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, head of the Portuguese government. Later, through another roya ...

), King

Joseph Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

signed into existence (10 September 1756) the ''Companhia Geral de Agricultura das Vinhas do Alto Douro''. This company improved the production of wine sales in the Douro valley, establishing a Demarcated Export product with specific quality expectations: wines that could not meet these levels of quality could not be sold as "Douro Wines". The ''Companhia Geral'' was also responsible for affixing similar ''demarcation'' to the

Porto Wine Port wine (also known as vinho do Porto, , or simply port) is a Portuguese fortified wine produced in the Douro Valley of northern Portugal. It is typically a sweet red wine, often served with dessert, although it also comes in dry, sem ...

, before any non-Douro brands began appearing in Europe. In the 19th century, through the administrative reforms, and owing to the regions importance to the Demarcated Region of the Douro, Santa Marta retained its municipal status.

Geography

Administratively, the municipality is divided into 7 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 ...

''): * Alvações do Corgo *

Cumieira Cumieira is a civil parish in the municipality of Santa Marta de Penaguião Santa Marta de Penaguião ( or ) is a Portuguese municipality in the district of Vila Real, in the northern region of Douro. The population in 2011 was 7,356, in an area ...

* Fontes * Louredo e Fornelos * Medrões * Lobrigos (São Miguel e São João Baptista) e Sanhoane * Sever

Notable people

* António Osório Sarmento de Figueiredo Jr. (1855–1935) a nobleman, jurist, politician and magistrate. *

Eurico Gomes Eurico Monteiro Gomes (born 29 September 1955), known simply as Eurico in his playing days, is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a central defender, and is a manager. He started out at Benfica and later played for Sp ...

(born 1955) known as ''Eurico'', a former footballer with 313 club caps and 38 for

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 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Marta de Penaguiao Municipalities of Vila Real District Towns in Portugal