BELMONTE
GPS: N 40.35821; W 7.35190
Belmonte is a Portuguese village in the district of Castelo Branco, in the province of Beira Baixa, in the Center region and sub-region of Beiras and Serra da Estrela, with about 3,500 inhabitants.
It is the seat of the Municipality of Belmonte with an area of 118.76 km² and 6,204 inhabitants (2021), subdivided into 4 parishes. The municipality is limited to the north by the municipality of Guarda, to the east by Sabugal, to the southwest by Fundão and to the west by Covilhã.
The town is part of the Network of Historic Villages of Portugal.
Parishes
The municipality of Belmonte is made up of 4 parishes:
Belmonte e Colmeal da Torre
Caria
Ínguias
Maçainhas
Attached Villages:
Belmonte Gare (Belmonte)
Carvalhal Formoso (Ínguias)
Gaia (Belmonte)
Malpique (Caria)
Monte do Bispo (Caria)
Olas (Ínguias)
Quinta Cimeira (Maçainhas)
Quinta do Meio (Belmonte)
Trigais (Ínguias)
History
Belmonte and neighboring Covilhã, although located in the interior of Portugal, are connoted as few Portuguese regions with the Portuguese maritime Discoveries. Among the curiosities that permeate the town's history is the fact that the discoverer of Brazil in the 15th century, the navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral, was born in Belmonte.
Belmonte is a municipality almost as old as the Nationality. The village of Belmonte had its charter in 1199 and is located on the panoramic Monte da Esperança (former Montes Crestados), on whose rockiest hill it was built at the end of the 19th century. Its castle which, together with the castles of Sortelha and Vila de Touro, formed until the signing of the Treaty of Alcanices (1297), the Alto Côa defensive line, supported at the rear by the natural wall of Serra da Estrela and the Vale do Zêzere. As it was a time of wars against the Leonese and Castilians, the castle of Belmonte was being improved during the reigns of D. Afonso III, D. Dinis and D. João I. The bravery and loyalty of the Cabrais family was always legendary and feared, above all that of its first mayor – Fernão Cabral, who, once named definitively and hereditary, in 1466 by D. Afonso V, transformed the castle into a Fortified Manor House, where his son Pedro Álvares Cabral lived his early years of life. life. In the century XIII attests to the existence of an already prosperous Jewish community, responsible for the existence of a synagogue of which an inscription dating from 1296 remains, which probably lived in a Jewish quarter located in the current neighborhood of Morocco. As a result of the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 by the Catholic Kings, it is likely that this community increased, until in 1496, D. Manuel I decreed the forced conversion to Catholicism, followed by a series of persecutions and the creation of a crypto-Jewish community that has survived over the centuries, maintaining its rituals and traditions. It is also the same monarch who, in 1510, renewed the charter of Belmonte. In 1989, the Jewish community of Belmonte was officially created, whose synagogue was inaugurated in 1997, and is currently one of the few communities with a Rabbi.
Man has occupied these lands since prehistoric times, as evidenced by megalithic remains dating back around 6,000 years in the parishes of Inguias and Caria. Equally important are the signs of proto-history, which assume new concepts and strategies for occupying the territory. At this time, the tops of the mountainous reliefs were favored as a form of territorial domination and social ostentation. This is the example of the castro da Chandeirinha, in the Serra da Senhora da Esperança. Truly striking in this municipality was the Roman presence. Effectively, the Romans, attracted by the mining and agricultural wealth of this region, quickly realized the strategic and economic importance of this territory, crossing it with roads. Thus arise the villae of Quinta da Fórnea in the parish of Belmonte and Centum Cellae, in the parish of Colmeal da Torre. With its imposing tower, it is one of the most monumental sites from Roman times in Portugal and has been the subject of several historical and archaeological interpretations.
In 1258, D. Afonso III granted the bishop of Coimbra, D. Egas Tafes, authorization for the construction of the keep and castle on the lands of this county. In the century In the 13th century, Belmonte is already a village heavily populated by Christians and Jews, justifying the existence of two churches (S. Tiago and Sta Maria) and a synagogue. The military administration (alcaidaria) of Belmonte was handed over by this king to Aires Pires Cabral, from the noble family of Cabrais.
