BEMPOSTA (PENAMACOR)
N 40.06603º; W 7.21155º
Bemposta is an old Portuguese parish in the municipality of Penamacor, in the province of Beira Baixa, Centro region (Beiras Region) and sub-region of Beira Interior Sul, with an area of 10.00 km² and 120 inhabitants (2011). Its population density was 12 inhabitants/km².
It was extinguished (added) by the administrative reorganization of 2012/2013, with its territory integrated into the Union of Parishes of Pedrógão de São Pedro and Bemposta.
It was a town and county seat between 1510 and 1836. It consisted only of the parish of the seat and had, in 1801, 410 inhabitants. Upon extinction, it incorporated the municipality of Monsanto and, in 1848, that of Penamacor.
Bemposta corresponds to the place or gens Isibraia.
Bemposta, 500 years of Manueline Charter
The year 2010 marks the 500th anniversary of the donation of the charter to Bemposta, which occurred on June 1, 1510, the same day it was granted to the town of Penamacor. An important milestone in the construction of the Municipality's territorial logic and which marks the administrative recognition by King D. Manuel I, and whose fiscal, legal and administrative autonomy is, in this way, institutionalized with the donation of these charters. These documents thus occupy a place of great importance in the history of the Municipality of Penamacor, as they allow us to understand how the lives of the populations took place in the 16th century, containing faithful descriptions of the agricultural products of the time and the people's ways of living, among others.
Given its importance and autonomy, Bemposta was the seat of the municipality until 1836, when the municipality was extinguished by Queen Maria II, to be first integrated into Monsanto, and later (1848) into Penamacor. From this lost autonomy, the Pelourinho still remains, the former Town Hall, court and prison, which still stands today in a central square in the town, next to the Espírito Santo Chapel (18th century) and the Bell Tower (possibly an old medieval keep). ). The original monument was erected on an uncertain date, and it is assumed that it dated from the granting of the Manueline charter.
Patrimony
Bemposta Pillory
Bemposta museum center (Roman remains)
Chapels of Espírito Santo and S. Sebastião
Old Town Hall
cruise
Roman bridge
Clock tower
Salgueira fountains, Santa Comba and Nova
Roman Ara de Bemposta
