| Interesting Facts about : |
Interesting facts about Portugal
Culture & People
Portuguese language is spoken by about 230 million people around the world (incl. 210 native speakers), and is the official language of 9 countries.
Portuguese language is most closely related to Galician language, spoken in northwestern Spain.
Almost 12% of the inhabitants of Luxembourg and 3% of the people in France are of Portuguese descent.
The current president of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, is Portuguese.
The world-famous Port wine (also known as "Porto"), a sweet Portuguese fortified wine from the Douro Valley, has been imitated in several countries - notably Australia, South Africa, India and the United States.
History
The name Portugal first appears in 868, during the Reconquista over the Muslims. A county was formed around the city of Porto, from which "Portugal" is derived.
The kingdom of Portugal lasted for nearly 800 years, from 1139 to 1910. Since 1910, the country has been a republic. The modern democratic republic was founded in 1976.
The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, signed in 1373, is the oldest alliance in the world which is still in force.
Portugal was one of the earliest colonising nation of Europe, starting with Ceuta (1410), Madeira (1419), the Azores (1439), then establishing trading posts along the coast of Africa later in the 15th century. In 1498, Vasco da Gama reached India, and in 1500 Pedro Álvares Cabral, en route to India, discovered Brazil and claimed it for Portugal. The Portuguese Empire would rule, among others, over Brazil, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Mozambique, Goa, Daman, Diu, Kochi, Malacca, and Macau. Most of the African colonies were granted independence in 1975. Macau, the last Portuguese colony, was handed over to China in 1999.
On 1 November 1755 (All Saints' Day), Lisbon was struck by an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 9 on the Richter scale - one of the most powerful in European history. The city was razed to the ground by the earthquake, the subsequent tsunami and ensuing fires. Up to 90,000 of the 275,000 inhabitants were killed and 85% of the buildings were destroyed, including famous palaces and churches, the 70,000-volume royal library, as well as the royal archives, containing the detailed historical records of explorations by Vasco da Gama and other early navigators. The earthquake profoundly disrupted the country's political scene and 18th-century colonial ambitions. Lisbon being the capital of a devout Catholic country with a long history of evangelism in the colonies, the catastrophe caused much embarassment to the Catholic Church, which could not explain this manifestation of the anger of God - striking moreover on a Catholic holiday.
Law & Government
The modern Portuguese legal system has been influenced primarily by German law.
Due to the influence of Roman Catholicism, Portugal is one of the most socially conservative countries in Europe. Abortion was only legalised through a referendum in 2007, causing much controversy. A Catholic priest vowed to excommunicate all people voting in favour of legalising abortion.
Construction & Transports
The Vasco da Gama Bridge in Lisbon is the longest bridge in Europe with 17,185 m (56,381 feet)
In 2006, Portugal established the world's first commercial wave farm (the Aguçadora Wave Park) to produce electricity.
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