Mertola

Mertola
coat of arms map
Basic data
Region :	Alentejo
Sub-region :	Baixo Alentejo
District :	Be yes
Concelho :	Mertola
Coordinates :	37 ° 38 ′  N , 7 ° 40 ′  W Coordinates: 37 ° 38 ′  N , 7 ° 40 ′  W
Residents:	2824 (as of June 30, 2011)
Surface:	322.77 km² (as of January 1, 2010)
Population density :	8.7 inhabitants per km²
Mértola district
flag map
Residents:	7274 (as of June 30, 2011)
Surface:	1 292.87  km² (as of January 1, 2010)
Population density :	5.6 inhabitants per km²
Number of municipalities :	7th
administration
Administration address:	Câmara Municipal de Mértola Praça Luís de Camões 7750-329 Mértola
Website:	www.cm-mertola.pt

Mértola - View of the town with the Guadiana River

Mértola is a small town (Vila) with 2,824 inhabitants (as of June 30, 2011) in the province of Alentejo in southeastern Portugal .

Location and climate

Mértola lies at a height of approx. 80 to 120  m in the wooded, rugged rocky landscape of the eastern Alentejo on a rocky outcrop above the mouth of the Río Oeiras in the Río Guadiana . The city of Beja is about 53 km (driving distance) in a north-westerly direction; it is approx. 68 km to the Atlantic coast at Vila Real de Santo António . The climate is temperate to warm; Rain (approx. 500 mm / year) falls mainly in the winter half-year.

history

prehistory

The region around Mértola has a number of menhirs , such as the "Menires de Lavajo" and the "Vale das Antas", which were built around 3000 BC. Is dated. On the road to the Mina de São Domingos, 3 km from the village, traces of copper processing from the 3rd quarter of the 3rd millennium BC were found. A settlement from this period is suspected in the urban area, but no further traces have been found due to a lack of relevant research.

Celtiberians, Phoenicians

The Celts living in the area are likely to have belonged to the tribe of the "Cunii", as they are called in the Latin sources, and whom Herodotus called "Cynesii", although they were not Celts with him and who lived in the far west of Europe ( II, 33). They used a Semitic alphabet for their gravestones . They probably lived as early as the 9th century BC. BC on the Guadiana River. But for the Bronze Age , the evidence of settlement in the urban area is rather vague; it is only certain for the beginning of the Iron Age .

It was not until 750 BC When Phoenicians came to the region, a trade dynamic emerged that made a protected harbor and securing of goods necessary. Accordingly, the sheltered location above the Guadiana, which allowed the shipping of gold, silver and tin, but above all copper, was of the greatest importance. However, it is unclear whether the Kingdom of Tartessos played a similar or even greater role in this process. A necropolis from the 7th to 5th centuries BC. BC was where the Rossio do Carmo is located below the city fortress today. It is unclear whether the Cunii or Phoenicians founded the city, although the assumption of a Phoenician foundation is based only on the name "Myrtilis". Greek influence, which can be seen in many ways, was entered by the traders as intermediaries.

The oldest archaeological traces of a city wall were found under the Casa do Pardal and date from the 5th century BC. Chr .; the oldest Phoenician amphora in the city was also found there. The oldest written source says only laconically that Myrtilis is an "oppidum antiquum et praeclarum" ( Ptolemy , 2nd century BC), an old and important oppidum . In addition to Celtic and Iberian groups, the Turdetans lived around Mértola, which was one of their cities in the Algarve, as well as, if one follows Ptolemy, Balsa , Ossonoba , Pax Iulia , Salacia and Caetobriga . At the mouth of the Guadiana sat the Baesuri, who controlled the intermediate trade towards the coast. The assumption that Mértola later belonged to Carthage is based only on the fact that the Carthaginian name for the Guadiana has been passed down, namely Hanas. It was not until the first Punic War (264–241 BC) that the Carthaginians tried to expand their sphere of influence to the entire Iberian Peninsula.

Romans

The Romans called the place Iulia Myrtilis , under Augustus it was raised to a municipality . They used it to ship the ores they extracted from the region's mines. The apparently easy conquest against low Celtic resistance was followed by a long war with the Lusitans , which in the core from 155 to 138 BC. Lasted. The first attacks on the cities connected with the Romans had already occurred in 194 or 193 BC. Started. This made Mértola, which was already heavily fortified, one of the starting points for military operations by the Romans.

A wall from the early imperial era has been partially excavated and documented since 2000. It should have been about 4 km long and 5 m high, it probably had four towers. One of the monumental portals was the Cerro do Furadouro , a second the Cerro do Benfica ; they came from the 4th century BC. BC, but were rebuilt. The double stone wall was filled with earth and irregular stones. This conversion work subsided in the late imperial period and houses were built directly on the city wall.

L. Appuleius Decianus had coins minted in Mértola (83-82 BC), which was probably connected with the battles between Quintus Sertorius , who had a strong power base in the south, and Pompey or Metellus (until 72 BC). .

Open fighting did not take place again until the 2nd century, when the Mauri invaded the Roman province of Baetica in 171 . A stone found in Mértola is related to the battles under Marc Aurel , as are finds from Pax Iulia - Béja and Ammaia at the time of Lucius Verus . The massive expansion of the city wall, the course of which in the late imperial era roughly corresponded to the present day, is likely to be related to the increasing uncertainty. From 400 the fortifications were reinforced and repaired several times. There were also rainwater reservoirs (ajibe) in the form of underground cisterns.

In order to protect metal extraction despite the increasing uncertainty, at least 20 fortresses or fortified places were built around the municipalities of Castro Verde , Almodôvar , Mértola and Alcoutim , which covered the flat land. Apparently there were no colonies , who usually farmed. A procurator from the central city of Merida supervised the mining of the copper. For the mines of Aljustrel, Mértola was most likely the only port of export. A road connected Mértola with the capital of the conventus , with Beja (Pax Iulia); Sections of two streets around Mértola have been made visible again.

The water was supplied via an underground canal system that started at two wells outside the city wall. This supply system was probably in use until the 16th century (see Mértola water art ).

Despite the advanced Romanization , which was already assumed under Caesar , inscriptions indicate the continued existence of pre-Roman culture. An inscription was dedicated to Dea Sancta, which probably meant the Celtic goddess Ataegina . Mértola also developed a far-reaching attraction that brought numerous colonists, freedmen , but also traveling people to the city. For example, a Firmidius Peregrinus came from Utica in Africa ; others came from Italy or Greece. Conversely, Messius Fructusa, who was born in Mértola, went to Tunisia in the middle of the 2nd century. What was surprising was a find of coins from Jerusalem , which may indicate the presence of Jews. The coins date from the years 6 to 66 AD. Other treasures of around 8000 and 4000 denarii as well as 690 numismata are added.

When the town hall, the Câmara Municipal, fell victim to a fire in 1982, only the facade remained. From 1984, under the layer of the 16th century, a Roman house was found that showed signs of renovation from the 3rd and 4th centuries. In addition, there were rooms between 2002 and 2004 that were used for living, but also as guest houses (tabernae), which can be explained by the proximity to the port. The finds are now housed in the specially founded Mértola Roman Museum.

About 500 m outside the city there was a Roman necropolis , which was essentially in use from the 2nd to the 5th century. Another necropolis was beyond the Rossio do Carmo. The dead were buried in open graves east-west; they were covered by mica , tegulae or simply earth. Only one grave, a children's grave, had gold jewelry, the rest of them were ceramics. Its gold chain featured a chrismon with alpha and omega . The men were about 1.60 m tall, the women mostly between 1.42 m and 1.52 m, which was the Iberian average. While the teeth of the Roman graves were marked by severe wear and tear caused by grain , what stood out in the later Muslim graves was that people were more likely to be affected by tooth decay , which indicates a reduction in coarsely ground grain and an increase in desserts.

Alans, Suebi, Visigoths

Alans and Vandals appeared in southern Portugal around 411, and the region around Mértola was occupied by Alans. However, these two Germanic peoples left the Iberian Peninsula as early as 428 to conquer North Africa. They were followed around 430 by the Suebi , who attacked the Baetica from 438 and conquered Mértola around 440. There their king received an imperial ambassador; the south of the Iberian peninsula remained in Suebian hands until 458, but they were defeated by the Visigoths . These occupied Seville in 473 and are also likely to have conquered Mértola between 466 and 474; the Suebi withdrew permanently to the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. The city may have been the center of several rebellions under the Tolosan Empire .

The city grew from a trading metropolis to an ecclesiastical and military center of the region, which also retained rudimentary administrative structures. Few sources report at the time of the Great Migration . Among these are the Chronicle of Hydatius by Aquae Flaviae . The locative form of the city name appears there as "Martyli", which the Arabs may have developed further as Mértola.

Greek tombstones of the 6th and 7th centuries probably go back to the presence of Byzantine traders; Byzantium occupied only the south of the Iberian Peninsula from 554 to around 615, but probably without being able to reach further west. On the other hand, no envoys from the city took part in Visigoth councils from 589 to 634, which could be an indication of Byzantine influence.

The relative economic isolation is clearly recognizable, since trade via the Guadiana with the Mediterranean area had become considerably more difficult. So you were more on your own, both economically and culturally. On the other hand, churches and hermitages increasingly shaped the city and its surroundings. A number of hermitages, such as the Nossa Senhora do Amparo, arose within a radius of 12 km. There were fragments of an altar from the 7th century. Another existed at S. Bartolomeu de Via Gloria with remains from the 4th to 8th centuries, then at S. Barão (probably 3rd to 7th century, the current building dates from the 18th century). A hermitage was found near Mosteiro, possibly going back to the remains of a Roman house. Certainly the farmers and shepherds used the decaying Roman villae for as long as possible. Numerous fragments of houses from this time can be found on churches, but also in the castle.

The Umayyads

The Arabs and Berbers , called Moors , under the leadership of the Umayyads , who ruled the Arab Empire between 661 and 750, and who conquered the region between 712 and 714, surrounded the city, which was now called Martulah , with a new wall. To this end, they built the five-aisled mosque below the castle, which became the Ingreja de Nossa Senhora da Assuncao after the Reconquista in 1238 and was the only Mesquita in Portugal to be fully preserved. The Moorish fortress Castelo dos Mouros was not overcome until 1233. Apparently there has been a strong influx of people from the southern Mediterranean areas, which can still be identified genetically today.

In 756 one of the Umayyads fled from the Abbasids , who overthrew them in 750, to the west and founded an independent empire. By 760, Abd ar-Rahman I managed to conquer the entire Muslim area on the Iberian Peninsula. The dynasty he founded ruled as emirs until 929 , then as caliphs until 1031 . The Islamization of the hitherto Christian sections of the population initially affected the leadership groups, who owed their wealth and career primarily to the court. Then came the cities, which were now more shaped by Muslim architecture and economy. The rural areas, on the other hand, were only more strongly affected by it very late, often in the 12th century. Many African and Middle Eastern techniques and products were also carried over to Mértola, where figs and dates became established, domestic pigs disappeared and more goats and sheep were kept instead. This in turn changed the landscape around Mértola.

Muslim empires and Almohads

Towards the end of the 10th century, regionalism received a strong boost from the centralism of the Umayyads. Between 1009 and 1031 the resistance of the regions increased strongly under the leadership of locally anchored families, but also at the court in Cordoba . Huelva-Saltes and Badajoz . started their own business in 1013, followed by Silves in 1014, and Shantmariyya al-Garb (Faro) in 1016/17.

In 1020 Mértola also made independent under the leadership of Ibn-Tayfur, who led the Bani Tayfur, the most powerful family in Mértola. One of them was executed in Seville in 1030. After the final fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031, numerous partial rulers, the Taifa kingdoms, emerged .

First of all, the rebels, mostly Berber families not anchored in the region , were replaced by locally dominant, mostly Arab families who had established their predominance over several generations under the Umayyads. Mértola was also subject to such a petty ruler, the Aftasids until 1033 and 1044, when it fell to the Kingdom of Seville in 1051. Only a few of the Taifas minted their own coins, but imitated both the court ceremony and its art sponsorship.

In 1086 the Almoravids coming from West Africa achieved a decisive victory that opened the Iberian Peninsula to them. The conquest began in 1090, and Seville fell in 1091. The Almoravids brought new families into the ranks of the ruling clans, but resistance soon arose. The second Taifa period began in 1144 when their empire fell apart.

Abu-l-Qasim Ahmad ibn al-Husayn ibn Qasi, or Ibn Qasi for short , an opponent of the Almoravids and a man who saw himself as a Mahdi and who adhered to Sufism , ruled the city from 1144 to 1150. With the conquest by the Almohads who had conquered the Maghreb and supported it, Mértola was again part of a large empire in 1146 with close contacts to North Africa. However, when he tried to drive them out with the help of the king of Portugal, the Almohads supported a rebellion that killed him in Silves . This ended the brief religious awakening phase of el-Andalus. In 1157 Mértola and Tavíra also had to submit.

In 1184 the attack on Lisbon failed , which the Portuguese kingdom used to counterattack. In 1189 Silves was conquered, but in 1191 it came back to the Almohads. After their victory at Alarcos in 1195, the Guadiana Valley also fell back to them. Mértola now almost formed the northern border of the Almohad Empire.

The mosque in the city dates from this era. It is noticeable that above all the glass production, both monochrome and polychrome pieces, took a very strong boom. The raw materials had to be procured from beyond the urban territory, i.e. regularly within a radius of 100 kilometers. When the political situation allowed, merchants from Mértola sold all over the Mediterranean and they traveled to Cartagena and Mallorca , Pisa and Kairuan . Growing from modest dimensions in the 10th century, this trade reached its peak in the 11th century. In 1238 the Christian Portuguese succeeded in the final conquest, with which the trading city was largely cut off from its markets in the Islamic world.

Portugal

Castle (castelo) and ramparts of Mértola

In 1238, King Sancho II ended more than 500 years of Muslim rule. He handed the place over to the order of the Knights of Jacob . In 1254 the city received a kind of city charter with limited administrative independence through a Carta de Foral . In 1292 Mértola received the mighty Torre de Menagem tower on the instructions of Dom Pedro Fernández Mata , the Grand Master of the Order of Santiago . The seat of the order remained in Mértola until 1316. Since long-distance trade with North Africa had been torn down since 1238, the number of inhabitants decreased and the place lost its importance as a trading center.

The conquest of North African cities by Portugal brought with it a brief boom in trade, as Mértola benefited from the supply of raw materials for weapons and wheat. In 1512 the city received another foral from the king . With the relocation of the trade routes to the Tagus , Mértola finally lost its former importance from the 16th century. The region was determined by feudal agrarian conditions until the 20th century. Copper discoveries at the Mina de São Domingos brought a brief industrialization phase, which ended abruptly with the closure of the mine in 1965.

Archaeological finds in the 1980s - such as Roman finds under the town hall - and a growing interest in Islamic culture gave Mértola a new economic pillar, tourism.

Attractions

Mértola with the bridge over the Río Guadiana in the background. In the foreground is the Church of the Annunciation ( Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Anunciação ), originally a mosque.

• Mértola is now in the middle of the Parque Natural do Vale do Guadiana , founded in 1995 , which is supposed to protect both the ecological treasures, such as the Iberian lynx and the Bonelli's eagle , as well as the archaeological ones. The trigger for the development of the protected area was the archaeological research. In 1983, the archaeologist and historian Claudio Torres started in 50 km south of Beja located village of Campo Archeologico with excavations that ended with a strong revival of the famous in Roman and Moorish times and for centuries neglected place Mértola. The Roman and Moorish finds brought to light by the excavations in the urban area, including the grave slab of Fortunata from 565, are presented in two small museums. 40,000 tourists visit the place with its red tile roofs and white walls every year; old craftsmanship was revived, workshop museums emerged, e.g. B. in the Rua de Ingreja the Cooperativa de Tecelager , where blankets and tablecloths are made in the traditional way. The jewelry workshop at Largo da Misericórdia produces works of precious metal and ceramics that were inspired by the Moorish finds.
• On the Largo da Câmara you can visit the excavations from Roman times, which are the remains of a residential complex that were discovered during renovation work on the town hall.
• In several of the town's houses there are reused stones and fragments of columns from Roman times ( Spolia ).
• The water art of Mértola , a water lift from Moorish times, has been preserved as a ruin.
• The main church of the city (Igreja Matriz) stands on the site of a mosque that was destroyed in the 16th century.
• The castle (castelo) built in the 13th century instead of a Moorish fortress towers over the city.

Surroundings

• In the tourist office on Largo Vasco da Gama you can get more information about a city boat that can be used to get to Alcoutim on the Río Guadiana , the border river between Portugal and Spain . Approx. 25 km north of Mértola, the Río Guadiana has cut a rugged bed into the rock. At Pulo do Lobo (= "wolf jump") it forms a waterfall .

administration

City coat of arms with Santiago knight

circle

Mértola is the seat of a district of the same name, which borders on Spain to the east . The neighboring areas are (starting clockwise in the north): Beja , Serpa , Alcoutim , Almodôvar and Castro Verde .

With the territorial reform in September 2013 , the municipalities ( freguesias ) São Miguel do Pinheiro , São Pedro de Solis and São Sebastião dos Carros were combined to form the new municipality União das Freguesias de São Miguel do Pinheiro, São Pedro de Solis e São Sebastião dos Carros . Since then, the district has consisted of the following seven municipalities:

Mértola district

local community	Population (2011)	Area km²	Density of population / km²	LAU code
Alcaria Ruiva	849	216.67	4th	020901
Corte do Pinto	857	71.46	12	020902
Espírito Santo	335	135.92	2	020903
Mertola	2,824	322.77	9	020904
Santana de Cambas	797	166.72	5	020905
São João dos Caldeireiros	567	103.95	5	020906
São Miguel do Pinheiro, São Pedro de Solis e São Sebastião dos Carros	1,045	275.38	4th	020910
Mértola district	7,274	1,292.87	6th	0209

Population development

Population in Mértola County (1801 - 2011)
1801	1849	1900	1930	1960	1981	1991	2001	2011
9617	10,757	18,910	26,310	26,026	11,693	9805	8712	7274

Municipal holiday

• June 24th

Twin cities

•  Mozambique : Monapo , Nampula Province
•  Morocco : Chefchaouen

sons and daughters of the town

• Brissos de Évora († 312), canonized martyr, probably second bishop of the Diocese of Évora
• Pedro Mascarenhas (approx. 1484–1555), navigator, explorer and diplomat
• António Raposo Tavares (1598–1658), Brazilian bandeirante in São Paulo
• Zacarias José Guerreiro (1859–1918), politician, 1910/11 governor of Faro
• Aureliano de Mira Fernandes (1884–1958), mathematician
• José Sebastião e Silva (1914–1972), mathematician
• Artur de Vasconcelos Sobral (1930-2016), poet
• Fernando Venâncio (* 1944), writer

• 

  Pedro Mascarenhas (picture in Faria e Sousa's book "Ásia Portuguesa" from 1674)

• 

  Statue of António Raposo Tavares in front of the Museu Paulista in São Paulo

• 

  Aureliano de Mira Fernandes

• 

  Fernando Venâncio

literature

• Virgilio Lopes, Santiago Macias: Mértola na antiguitade tardia , in: José María Gurt Esparraguera, Albert Ribera i Lacomba (ed.): VI Reunió d'Arqueologia Cristiana Hispànica: les ciutats tardoantigues d'Hispania: cristianització i topografia: València: 9 i 10 de maig de 2003 , 2005, pp. 449-464. ISBN 84-7283-826-9
• Susanna Gómez Martínez: La céramica islámica de Mértola: Producción y comercio , Diss. Madrid 2004.
• Susanna Gómez Martínez: New Perspectives in the Study of Al-Andalus Ceramics, Mértola (Portugal) and the Mediterranean Maritime Routes in the Islamic Period , in: Al-Masaq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean 21.1 (2009) 59-82. doi : 10.1080 / 09503110802704437
• Susana Gómez Martínez, Lígia Rafael, Santiago Macias: Habitat e utensílios na Mértola almóada , 2010 ( online )
• Susana Gómez Martínez, Virgílio Lopes, Cláudio Torres, Maria de Fátima Palma, Santiago Macias: Mértola Islâmica. A madina eo arrabalde , XELB 9 (2010) | 6o Encontro de Arqueologia do Algarve, pp. 407-429.
• Thomas G. Schattner (Ed.): Archaeological guide through Portugal (= cultural history of the ancient world . Vol. 74). Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1998, ISBN 3-8053-2313-1 p. 191

Web links

Commons : Mértola  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Map of the Freguesia Mértola at the Instituto Geográfico do Exército

Remarks

1. ↑ www.ine.pt - indicator resident population by place of residence and sex; Decennial in the database of the Instituto Nacional de Estatística
2. ↑ ^{a b} Overview of code assignments from Freguesias on epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu
3. ↑ www.ine.pt - indicator resident population by place of residence and sex; Decennial in the database of the Instituto Nacional de Estatística
4. ↑ Mértola - climate tables
5. ↑ Susanna Gómez Martínez: La céramica islámica de Mértola: Producción y comercio , Diss. Madrid 2004, p. 32.
6. ↑ Herodotus II, 33 in English translation .
7. ↑ Jorge de Alarcão: O Domínio Romano em Portugal , Publicações Europa-América, 1988, p. 13.
8. ↑ Jorge de Alarcão: O domínio romano em Portugal , Publicações Europa-América, 1988, p. 29 f. In an inscription, the residents thank a Berilo, procurator et rationalium vicarius (p. 130).
9. ↑ Manuel Galo is best researched about 25 km south of Mértola.
10. ↑ Rui MS Centeno, JM Valladares Souto: Depósito de moedas da Judeia achado em Mértola , in: Nvmmvs, 2a serie, XVI-XX (1993-1997) 197-203, here: p. 200.
11. ↑ L. Pereira, AC Moralesb, A. Goiosa, R. Duartea, C. Rodriguesb, P. Endicottd, A. Alonsoe, P. Martine, C. Torres and A. Amorim: The Islamization of Iberian Peninsula: A demographic shift or a cultural change? Search for an answer using extant and ancient DNA from Mértola (Southeast Portugal) , in: Progress in Forensic Genetics 11 - Proceedings of the 21st International ISFG Congress held in Ponta Delgada, The Azores, Portugal between 13 and 16 September 2005, International Congress Series 1288 (April 2006), pp. 828-830.
12. ^ Publication of the administrative reorganization in the Diário da República gazette of January 28, 2013, accessed on March 16, 2014
13. ↑ www.anmp.pt , accessed January 5, 2013