Beja (), officially the City of Beja (), is a city and a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the Alentejo region, Portugal. The population in 2011 was 35,854, in an area of . The city proper had a population of 21,658 in 2001. The municipality is the capital of the Beja District. The municipal holiday is Ascension Day. The Portuguese Air Force has an airbase in the area – the Air Base No. 11.

History

Situated on a hill, commanding a strategic position over the vast plains of the Baixo Alentejo, Beja was already an important place in antiquity. Already inhabited in Celtic times, the town was later named '' Pax Julia'' by

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

in 48 BCE, when he made peace with the Lusitanians. He raised the town to be the capital of the southernmost province of

Lusitania Lusitania (; ) was an ancient Iberian Roman province encompassing most of modern-day Portugal (south of the Douro River) and a large portion of western Spain (the present Extremadura and Province of Salamanca). Romans named the region after th ...

(Santarém and Braga were the other capitals of the ''conventi''). During the reign of emperor

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

the thriving town became Pax Augusta. It was already then a strategic road junction. When the

Visigoths The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied Barbarian kingdoms, barbarian military group unite ...

took over the region, they called the town ''Paca'' (a direct derivation or shortening of the Latin ''Pax or Pace-Augusta'') which then became the seat of a

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

ric. Saint Aprígio (died in 530) became the first Visigothic bishop of Paca. The town fell to the invading

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...

army in 713. ''Paca'', was then adapted to Arabic ''Baja'' ( there's no sound for "p" in Arabic), and eventually became ''Beja''. Starting in 910 there were successive attempts of conquest and reconquest by the Christian kings. With the collapse of the Umayyad

Caliphate of Córdoba A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...

in 1031, Beja became a taifa, an independent Muslim-ruled principality. In 1144 the governor of Beja, Sidray ibn Wazir, helped the rebellion of the '' Murīdūn'' (disciples) led by Abul-Qasim Ahmad ibn al-Husayn al-Quasi in the

Algarve The Algarve (, , ) is the southernmost NUTS statistical regions of Portugal, NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities (concelho, ''concelhos'' or ''município ...

against power of

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

. In 1150 the town was captured by an army of the Almohads, who annexed it to their North African empire. It was retaken in 1162 by Fernão Gonçalves, leading the army of the Portuguese king Afonso I. It must have been abandoned by the Portuguese because in 1172 Gerald the Mercenary captured the town from the Muslims and before departing from it the medieval Arab city was reduced to rubble and left desolate. A scarce 200 men and their families returned to the city rebuilding once more but a mere 6 years later hen the Almohad caliph crossed the straits to Moroccoin 1178, the Portuguese under Afonso I launched an expedition against the city. The entire population fled to Mertola thus bringing a definitive end to Muslim inhabitation of Beja. It stayed under Muslim rule ost likely only inhabited by a garrisontill 1234 when king Sancho II finally recaptured the town from the Moors. All these wars depopulated the town and gradually reduced it to rubble. Only with Manuel I in 1521 did Beja again reach the status of city. It was attacked and occupied by the Portuguese and the Spanish armies during the Portuguese Restoration War (1640–1667). Beja became again the head of a

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

in 1770, more than a thousand years after the fall of the Visigothic city. In 1808

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

ic troops under General Junot sacked the city and massacred the inhabitants.

Jewish History

Jews had already been living in Beja by the time the Kingdom of Portugal was established in the 12th century. Clauses regarding Jews are mentioned in the town's first charter. When the Jews were expelled from Portugal, Beja became a center for crypto-Judaism. The surname Beja was common among

Sephardim Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendan ...

living in other parts of Europe and the Middle East, presumably the descendants of those who were expelled, as it was common for Sephardic Jews to take on the surnames of the towns they were expelled from.

Geography

Climate

Due to its southernmost inland location with the descending winds of the subtropics and low precipitation, especially in summer, the city has a

hot-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: ''Csa''). It is the hottest main city in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

and one of the hottest places in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

during summer. Between 2001 and 2018 it had the hottest summer of any main city in the country. Winters are mild and moderately rainy, while summers are hot and dry. The average high in January is around , while the July and August highs are around . However, in the last few years there has been an increase, to around 34-36°C+. The July and August lows are around , while the January lows are around , occasionally dropping below during the cold months, with an average of 9 days with frost per year. The annual mean temperature is around . The average total rainfall in a year is .

Snow Snow consists of individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water througho ...

is rare but may fall about once per decade, the last major snowfall having happened on January 10, 2009. The year 2005 was particularly dry in

and Beja suffered devastating forest fires in the surrounding rural areas contributing to the

desertification Desertification is a type of gradual land degradation of Soil fertility, fertile land into arid desert due to a combination of natural processes and human activities. The immediate cause of desertification is the loss of most vegetation. This i ...

that affects Alentejo.

Human geography

Administratively, the municipality is divided into 11 civil parishes ('' freguesias''): * Albernoa e Trindade * Baleizão * Beja (Salvador e Santa Maria da Feira) * Beja (Santiago Maior e São João Baptista) * Beringel * Cabeça Gorda * Nossa Senhora das Neves * Salvada e Quintos * Santa Clara de Louredo * Santa Vitória e Mombeja * São Matias * Trigaches e São Brissos

International relations

Beja is twinned with:

Architecture

Castle

Carmelo do Sagrado Coracao de Jesus Beja

The Castle of Beja on top of the hill can be seen from afar and dominates the town. It was built, together with the town walls, under the reign of King Diniz in the 13th century over the remains of a Roman ''castellum'' that had been fortified by the

Moors The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a s ...

. It consists of battlement walls with four square corner towers and a central granite and marble

keep A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...

(''Torre de Menagem''), with its height of 40 m the highest in Portugal. The top of the keep can be accessed via a spiral staircase with 197 steps, passing three stellar-vaulted rooms with Gothic windows. The merlons of the machicolation around the keep are topped with small pyramids. Standing on the battlements, one has a sensational panorama of the surrounding landscape. One can also glimpse the remains of the city walls that once had forty

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...

s and five gates. The castle now houses a small military museum. The square in front of the castle is named after Gonçalo Mendes da Maia or ''O Lidador'', a brave knight killed in the battle against the Moors in 1170.

Visigothic Museum

The whitewashed Latin-Visigothic church of Santo Amaro, dedicated to Saint Amaro, standing next to the castle, is one of just four pre-Romanesque churches left in Portugal. Some parts date from the 6th century and the interior columns and capitals are carved with foliages and geometric designs from the 7th century. Especially the column with birds attacking a snake is of particular note. It houses today a small archaeological museum with Visigothic art.

Museum of Queen Eleanor

This regional museum was set up in 1927 and 1928 in the former Convent of Our Lady of the Conception (''Convento de Nossa Senhora da Conceição'') of the Order of Poor Ladies (dissolved in 1834), gradually expanding its collection. This

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

convent had been established in 1459 by Infante Fernando, Duke of Viseu and duke of Beja, next to his ducal palace. The construction continued until 1509. It is an impressive building with a late- Gothic lattice-worked architrave running along the building. This elegant architrave resembles somewhat the architrave of the Monastery of Batalha, even if there are some early- Manueline influences. Above the entrance porch on the western façade is an '' ajimez'' window (a mullioned window) in Manueline and Moorish style in the room of the abbess, originating from the demolished palace of the dukes of Beja. The entrance door is embedded under an

ogee An ogee ( ) is an object, element, or curve—often seen in architecture and building trades—that has a serpentine- or extended S-shape (Sigmoid curve, sigmoid). Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combination of two semicircle, semicircula ...

arch. A square bell-tower and a spire with crockets tower above the complex. The convent has been classified as a national monument. The entrance hall leads to the sumptuously gilded

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

chapel, consisting of a single nave under a semi-circular vault. Three altars (one of the 17th century, dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, and two of the 18th century, dedicated to St. Christopher and St. Bento) are decorated with gilded woodwork (''talha dourada''). The fourth altar, dedicated to St.

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

, was decorated with Florentine mosaics by José Ramalho in 1695. On the wall are three religious

azulejo (, ; from the Arabic ) is a form of Portuguese and Spanish painted Tin-glazing, tin-glazed ceramic tilework. ''Azulejos'' are found on the interior and exterior of church (building), churches, palaces, ordinary houses, schools, and nowadays, r ...

s dating from 1741, depicting scenes from the life of St. John the Baptist The refectory and the ''claustro'' are decorated with exquisite ''azulejos'', some dating from Moorish times, others from the 16th to the 18th centuries. One enters the

chapter house A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there. In monasteries, the whole communi ...

through a Manueline portal from the ''quadra'' of St. John the Evangelist. The ribbed vault of this square room was distempered during the renovations of 1727. The walls are covered with Arab-Hispanic azulejos with geometric and vegetal designs that are among the most important ceramic decorations in Portugal. Above the azulejos are some semicircular distempered paintings with religious themes: St. John the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist, St. Christopher, St. Clare and St. Francis of Assisi. The museum houses also an important collection of Flemish, Spanish and Portuguese paintings from the 15th to the 18th centuries, among them: * Flemish paintings: '' Virgin with Milk''; Flemish School (c. 1530) and "Christ and His Apostles" (16th century) * Portuguese paintings: '' Ecce Homo'' (15th century), " St. Vincent by Vicente Gil and Manuel Vicente (16th century), "Virgin with the Rose" by Francisco Campos (16th century), "Mass of St. Gregory" probably by Gregório Lopes (16th century), "Annunciation" (16th century) and four paintings by António Nogueira (16th century), "Last Supper" by Pedro Alexandrino (17th century). * Spanish paintings: '' St. Augustine'', '' St. Jerome'' and "Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew" by José de Ribera (Spanish, 17th century), '' Head of Saint John the Baptist'' (Spanish School, 17th century) The museum houses also the funeral monuments in late-Gothic style of the first abbess D. Uganda and of the Infante Fernando, Duke of Viseu and his wife Beatriz of Portugal. The archaeological collection of Fernando Nunes Ribeiro, donated to museum in 1987 after forty years of archaeological research, is on display on the upper floors: Visigothic and Roman artefacts, gravestones from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

with antique writings of the Iberians and steles from the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

. Among the several other artefacts in its collection, the museum possesses the ''Escudela de Pero de Faria'', a unique piece of Chinese porcelain from 1541.

Museums and monuments

* Castle of Beja * Medieval city wall with various gates, e.g. Porta de Mértola, Porta de Aljustrel * Regional Museum (Housed in the Convent of Beja) * Museological Core of Sembrano's Street * Visigotic Core of the Regional Museum (Housed in the Church of Santo Amaro) * Old Stone

Pillory The pillory is a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, used during the medieval and renaissance periods for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse. ...

* Roman ruins of Pisões * Jorge Vieira's Art Museum

Historical churches

* Cathedral of St. James the Great, Beja * Hermitage of Saint Andrew * Church of Saint Amaro / Visigothic Core of the Regional Museum of Beja * Church of Mercy * Convent of Our Lady of Conception ( Convent of Beja) / REGIONAL MUSEUM * Convent of Saint Francis (presently a historical hotel) * Church of Santa Maria da Feira (originally built as a mosque) * Church of Our Lady of Pleasures * Church of Our Lady at the Foot of the Cross * Church of Our Lady of Peace * Church of the Savior * Church of Our Lady of Carmo * St. Stephen's Chapel * Saint Sebastian's Hermitage * Convent of Saint Anthony

Urban green spaces

* ''Jardim Gago Coutinho e Sacadura Cabral'' is a well-kept public park in the centre with several monuments, fountains, a pergola and a pavilion. The park is named after two pilots, Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho, who were the first Portuguese who crossed the South Atlantic by plane in 1922. A large and sightworthy painting consisting of tiles can be seen on the entrance gate. It refers to the liberation of Beja during the

reconquista The ''Reconquista'' (Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese for ) or the fall of al-Andalus was a series of military and cultural campaigns that European Christian Reconquista#Northern Christian realms, kingdoms waged ag ...

. * City Park * Picnic Park (Close to the City Park)

Economy

Known as the breadbasket of Portugal, the region's agriculture is a mainstay of the local economy. It produces

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

and olives. Tourism has also importance due to sunny weather, a long history and many cultural attractions including a 13th-century castle and a number of museums.

Transportation

The military airport of Beja, 9 kilometres away, has been converted and was opened for civilian flights in 2011. The Portuguese wet lease airline Hi Fly operated its

Airbus A380 The Airbus A380 is a very large wide-body airliner, developed and produced by Airbus until 2021. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and the only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the pr ...

, purchased second-hand in 2018, from Beja, as well as other airplanes of its fleet. A highway was constructed to link Beja to the deepwater port of Sines about 60 kilometres away. Beja railway station is the terminus of the Linha do Alentejo railway.

Education

Higher education

* Polytechnic Institute of Beja

Schools

* EB 2,3 Santiago Maior School * EB 2,3 Mário Beirão School * EB 2,3 Santa Maria School * D. Manuel I - High School * Diogo Gouveia - High School * Regional Music Conservatory from Baixo Alentejo

Culture

Cultural places

* Beja Public Library * Pax Julia Theater * Casa da Culture (meaning House of Culture)

Events

* Ovibeja * Patrimónios do Sul * Beja Romana (Historical Recreation from Roman Times) * International

Comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

Festival * Palavras Andarilhas

Notable citizens

* Abu al-Walid al-Baji (c. 1013–c.1081) a goldsmith and

Maliki The Maliki school or Malikism is one of the four major madhhab, schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas () in the 8th century. In contrast to the Ahl al-Hadith and Ahl al-Ra'y schools of thought, the ...

scholar * Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad (1040–1095), the third and last ruler of the taifa of Seville in Al-Andalus. * Gonçalo Mendes da Maia (1079–1170) a knight in the service of Afonso Henriques, responsible for border defence of Beja. * Queen Eleanor of Viseu (1458–1525) an '' infanta'' (princess) and later queen consort of Portugal. * Diogo de Gouveia (c.1471-1557) a teacher, theologian, diplomat and humanist during the Renaissance. * André de Gouveia (1497–1548) a humanist and pedagogue during the Renaissance. * António de Gouveia (c.1505–1566) a humanist and educator during the Renaissance. * Mariana Alcoforado (1640–1723) a nun who wrote the '' Letters of a Portuguese Nun'' * José Agostinho de Macedo (1761–1831) a Portuguese poet and prose writer * Tomás António Garcia Rosado (1854–1937) an infantry officer, general of the Portuguese Army, Governor of Mozambique, 1902-1905 and Ambassador to the UK, 1926-1934. * António Maria Baptista (1866–1920) a military officer and politician, President of the Ministry in 1920 * Deolinda Lopes Vieira (1888–1993) a teacher, an anarcho-syndicalist activist and feminist * Mário Beirão (1890–1965) a Portuguese poet * Maria Lucília Estanco Louro (1922–2018) a teacher, pacifist and opponent of the Estado Novo regime * Catarina Eufémia (1928–1954) a harvester and political murder victim in Beja * Linda de Suza (born 1948) a singer, actress and best-selling author * Tonicha (born 1946) real name ''Antónia de Jesus Montes Tonicha'', a pop-folk singer. * Cândida Branca Flor (1949–2001) an entertainer and traditional singer Cândida Branca Flor, IMDb Database
retrieved 10 June 2021. * Carlos Moedas (born 1970) European Commissioner 2014-2019 * António Zambujo (born 1975) a singer and songwriter

Sport

* Fernando Mamede (born 1951), a former athlete, a long distance running specialist * Quim (born 1967), real name ''Joaquim Manuel Aguiar Serafim'', a retired footballer with 436 for Vitória F.C. * Pedro Caixinha (born 1970), a football manager * Manuel Damião (born 1978), a middle- and long-distance runner *

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

(born 1982), real name ''João Pedro dos Santos Gonçalves'', a footballer with over 350 club caps * João Aurélio (born 1988), a professional footballer with over 300 club caps

References

Notes

Sources

* * * *

External links

Town Hall official website

Museum Queen Eleanor
(in Portuguese)
Carmel of Beja
(in Portuguese) {{Authority control Populated places in Beja District Burial sites of the House of Aviz Municipalities of Beja District