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Interesting Facts About Portugal

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Portugal covers an area measuring 92,345 sq km (35,655 sq miles. The population was estimated to be 10,599,095 million (2006 figure). The country has been a republic since 1910. The head of state is President Anibel Antonio Cavaco Silva.

The capital of Portugal is Lisbon, which is also it's largest city. Portugal does not have an official religion, though some 84% of the population are Catholic.

Time in Portugal is GMT and the country does adhere to daylight saving the same as the United Kingdom.

The national flower of Portugal is Lavender, though it is often mistakenly said to be the Carnation following the 1974 peaceful revolution nicknamed the Carnation Revolution.

Mainland Portugal is sub-divided into ten geographical regions: Minho, Douro Litoral, Tras-o-Montes, Douro Litoral, Beira Alta, Beira Litoral, Beira Baixa, Ribatejo, Estremadura, Alentejo and the Algarve.

gekkoportugal: map of portugal with interesting facts about portugal

Geographical Facts About Portugal

Portugal is the most South Westerly country in Europe

Portugal has 21 rivers running within it's borders: Antua, Águeda, Alcoa, Arade, Caia, Coa River, Cávado, Douro, Guadiana, Limia, Minho, Mira, Mondego, Nabão, Rio Alto, Sado, Tagus, Tamega, Tua, Vouga and Zêzere.

     

Sustainable Energy Facts about Portugal

In 2006 Portugal opened the world's largest Solar Energy plant, based in the Alentejo and Portugal also boasts the world's fire wave energy plant, which became producing energy in October of the same year.

Migration Facts About Portugal

Almost 12% of the inhabitants of Luxembourg and 3% of the people in France are of Portuguese descent.

The net migration rate per ratio is 3.4 per 1,000 people.

Portuguese Language Facts

Worldwide Portuguese is spoken by about 230 million people (of which 210 native speakers) and is the official language in nine countries - Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe.

Portuguese is the ninth most influential languages spoken in the world after English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, German and Japanese.

Feats of Engineering in Portugal

The Vasco de Gama bridge is the longest bridge in Europe, spanning 17.2 km (10.7 miles.) The bridge was opened in 1998 on the 500th birthday of the Portuguese explorer discovered the sea route to India.

 

Portuguese Aviation

Apart from its seafaring tradition, Lisbon was also the scene of two record-breaking moments in aviation history.

In 1922, two local pilots, Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral, left the Portuguese capital for Rio de Janeiro in a seaplane called Santa Cruz, to complete the first crossing of the South Atlantic.

Coincidentally, the first North Atlantic flight landed in Lisbon three years earlier on 27 May 1919.

Sport in Portugal

Portugal's national rugby team became the first all amateur team to qualify for the World Cup in 2007 since the beginning of the professional era.

 

Portuguese Explorers

Bartholomew Dias, the Portuguese explorer, was the first to sail round the southern tip of Africa, which he named the Cape of Good Hope.

In 1522 Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer, financed by Spain, became the first to complete a circumnavigation of the world.

At the end of the 1490s Vasco da Gama discovered the sea route to India.

Pedro Alvarez Cabral was the discoverer of Brazil.

Outlawed in Portugal

The Portuguese slave trade was outlawed in 1850, though Portugal was the first country in Europe to open a 'Slave Market' at Lagos in the Algarve.

Since the eighteenth century it has been illegal for the bull to be killed in Portuguese bullfighting.

King Manuel II, Portugal's last king, was deposed in 1910 and lived in exile in Twickenham in England.

Casinos
Estoril Casino, 20 kilometres from Lisbon, is the largest gambling outlet in Europe. It is certainly the oldest establishment in Portugal, having opened it's revolving doors in 1920.
 
 

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