Zibreira is a

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 authorit ...

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 ...

, located within the municipality of

Torres Novas Torres Novas () is a Portuguese municipality in the district of Santarém, in the Médio Tejo of the Centro region. The population of the municipality was approximately 36,717 (from the 2011 census), with the city of Torres Novas (seat of the mu ...

, in the

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 ...

. It is noted for the Aroeria cave, where the Aroeira 3 skull of a 400,000 year old

Homo Heidelbergensis ''Homo heidelbergensis'' (also ''H. sapiens heidelbergensis''), sometimes called Heidelbergs, is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human which existed during the Middle Pleistocene. It was subsumed as a subspecies of '' H. erectus'' i ...

was found, being the oldest trace of human history in Portugal. As of 2011, there are 1,028 inhabitants living within the parish, giving it a population density of around 98 people per sq kilometer (254 people per sq mile)

Location

Zibreira sits near the junction of the A1 (North Motorway) which connects Lisbon, the capital, to

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

; and the A23 motorway (Portugal) (Auto-Estrada da Beira Interior) which connects to Guarda and

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. This location has greatly aided its industrialization. Aroeira3

Archaeology

The village of Almonda, within the parish of Zibreira, is noted for the Aroeira cave, where the 400,000 year old Aroeira 3 skull of a

was discovered in 2014. It is the oldest trace of human history in

.Phys Org, March 13, 2017, 400,000-year-old fossil human cranium is oldest ever found in Portugal
/ref>Joan Daura
et al.: ''New Middle Pleistocene hominin cranium from Gruta da Aroeira (Portugal).'' In: ''

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Sci ...

(PNAS)'' Online pre-release of 13 March 2017.The primitive man from Portugal, Article from 16 March 2017 des

Hamburger Abendblatt The ''Hamburger Abendblatt'' (English: ''Hamburg Evening Newspaper'') is a German daily newspaper in Hamburg. The paper focuses on news in Hamburg and area, and produces regional supplements with news from Norderstedt, Ahrensburg, Harburg, and P ...

, accessed on March 22, 2017''Crânio de 400 mil anos é o fóssil humano mais antigo descoberto em Portugal''
400,000 year old skull found the oldest human fossil in Portugal, Article from 13. March 2017 he Portuguese newspaper Público, accessed on March 22, 2017

Economy

''Renova'', (Fábrica de Papel do Almonda, SA), an international paper company, and ''Companhia de Torres Novas'', a textiles company, are both based within the municipality.

References

Archaeological sites in Santarém District Villages in Portugal Populated places in Santarém District Municipalities of Santarém District {{Santarém-geo-stub