Beira Litoral

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The historic Província da Beira Litoral (dark orange), in the Beira region (light orange).

The Beira Litoral ( German roughly coastal border area ) was one of the eleven provinces of Portugal from 1936 to 1976 . Today they only exist in colloquial language or in historically based terms.

Coimbra was the capital of the province, which included most of the present-day districts of Coimbra and Aveiro , plus about half of the present-day districts ( concelhos ) in the Leiria district ( Alvaiázere , Ansião , Batalha , Castanheira de Pêra , Figueiró dos Vinhos , Leiria , Pedrógão Grande and Pombal ), and a district in the district of Santarém ( Ourém ). Together with the neighboring provinces of Beira Alta and Beira Baixa, it formed what is still often called Beiras today . Bordering the Atlantic in the west , the other neighboring provinces were Douro Litoral in the north, Ribatejo in the south, and Estremadura in the southeast.

In contrast to the Beira Litoral coastal region (German: Coastal Beira), the Beira Alta and the Beira Baixa are still referred to together as the Beira Interior (German: Inner Beira), which is considered to be structurally weak and affected by strong rural migration In contrast to the Beira Litoral, where with Coimbra , Aveiro , Leiria and Figueira da Foz most of the economically most important cities of central Portugal are located.

The name Beira (German roughly: edge area, border area or also shore) goes back to the time of the Reconquista , when this was a contested border area to the dominion of the Moors . In contrast to the secluded stretches of land of the Beira Interior, where a lot of originality in nature, buildings and customs has been preserved, the Beira Litoral is characterized by lively diversity and more advanced development, centrally located between the two most important metropolises of the country ( Lisbon and Porto ) . For example, Coimbra is one of the intellectual and cultural centers of Portugal in the Beira Litoral, as well as a number of nationally known seaside resorts, such as Figueira da Foz or Espinho .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lydia Hohenberger / Jürgen Strohmaier: Portugal. 2nd edition, DuMont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2009, page 198 ( ISBN 978-3-7701-7658-8 )
  2. ↑ Hugues Demeude / Thierry Perrin: Portugal. 1st edition, Taschen, Cologne 1999, page 100f. ( ISBN 3-8228-7131-1 )