X-Nico

39 unusual facts about Portugal


1640s in South Africa

1643 - The Portuguese ship, Santa Maria Madre de Deus is wrecked off the South African east coast

2000 Estoril Open

Both the men's and the women's events took place at the Estoril Court Central, in Oeiras, Portugal, from April 10 through April 17, 2000.

2005 Estoril Open

Both the men's and the women's events took place at the Estoril Court Central, in Oeiras, Portugal, from April 25 through May 2, 2005.

2007 Estoril Open

Both the men's and the women's events took place at the Estoril Court Central in Oeiras, Portugal, from April 30 through May 6, 2007.

2008 Estoril Open

Both the men's and the women's events took place at the Estoril Court Central in Oeiras, Portugal, from April 14 through April 20, 2008.

2009 Estoril Open

Both the men's and the women's events took place at the Estádio Nacional in Oeiras, Portugal, from May 2 through May 10, 2009.

2011 Estoril Open

Both the men's and the women's events took place at the Estádio Nacional in Oeiras, Portugal, from April 23 through May 1, 2011.

2012 Estoril Open

Both the men's and the women's events took place at the Estádio Nacional in Oeiras, Portugal, from April 28 through May 6, 2012.

2013 Portugal Open

Both the men's and the women's events took place at the Estádio Nacional in Oeiras, Portugal, from April 28 through May 5, 2013.

Adriano de Paiva

Adriano de Paiva (1847–1907) was a Portuguese scientist who was one of the pioneers of telectroscope.

Almoravid dynasty

Three years afterwards, under Yusuf's son and successor, Ali ibn Yusuf, Sintra and Santarém were added, and he invaded Iberia again in 1119 and 1121, but the tide had turned, as the French had assisted the Aragonese to recover Zaragoza.

Anadia

Anadia, Portugal, a municipality in the district of Aveiro, Portugal

Anastasia Grishina

In June, Grishina competed at the Anadia World Challenge Cup in Anadia, Portugal.

Archdiocesan Boy Choir of Philadelphia

In 1995 the choir sang at the shrine of Our Lady of Fátima, Portugal, for processions and special masses in which over one-half million pilgrims participated.

Atlantic Europe

Patrick O'Flanagan, based on the theories of Pedrayo and Ribeiro, states that Atlantic Europe is a cultural reality that stretches along the coastal fringe of Europe, from Norway to South-Central Portugal (roughly down to the Santarém area), and including Britain and Ireland.

Bom Dia

Bom Dia (Portuguese for Good Morning) is the first album of the Portuguese band Pluto.

Campo Maior

Campo Maior, Portugal, a municipality in the Portalegre District, Alentejo Region, Portugal.

Disputed status of Olivenza

The Disputed status of Olivenza refers to a dispute between Portugal and Spain over the territory on the border of those two states known as Olivenza (Olivença in Portuguese).

Espinho

:** Espinho, Portugal, the city/urbanized catchment area of the municipality of Espinho

Felgueiras

Felgueiras, Portugal, the city/urban catchment within the municipality of Felgueiras

Gambrel

1) Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and English mariners and traders had visited or settled in to the area of southeast Asia now called Indonesia prior to permanent European settlement in America.

Grenadiers à Cheval de la Garde Impériale

Masséna had been busy besieging general Wellington in Lisbon, but he was not able to pierce the fortified Lines of Torres Vedras and subsequently retreated to Almeida.

Ibn Bassam

Ibn Bassam describes how the incessant invasions of the Castillans forced him to run away from Santarém in Portugal, "the last of the cities of the west," after seeing his lands ravaged and his wealth destroyed, a ruined man with no possessions save his battered sword.

Instituto de Medicina Molecular

Historically, IMM benefited from the full integration of academic researchers into the Lisbon Medical School who initiated their academic training and scientific careers at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC), in Oeiras, one of the first national institutions to introduce and make use of state-of-the-art cell and molecular biology techniques.

João Pedro Mouzinho de Albuquerque

– at her old house at the Violeiros Street, Portalegre, January 17, 1907), married at the Oratory of the old Family House, São Vicente de Fora, Lisbon, July 1, 1815, being testemonies her brothers Pedro and Luís da Silva, as his second wife Fernando Pereira de Faria Cota Falcão, 9th Lord of the Majorats da Amieira and da Pipa, who made himself to be represented by his cousin Gaspar Cota Falcão Aranha de Sousa e Meneses, and had issue

Johann Natterer

financed an expedition to Brazil on the occasion of the wedding of his daughter Archduchess Leopoldina to the Portuguese crown prince, Dom Pedro of Alcantara (who was later to become Emperor of Brazil).

Louis Tirlet

The year 1810 found Tirlet commanding the II Corps artillery under Jean Reynier during André Masséna's invasion of Portugal in the Peninsular War.

Luso

A prefix meaning Portuguese (after the Roman province of Lusitania, roughly corresponding to modern Portugal)

Medieval antisemitism

The Kingdom of Portugal followed suit and in December 1496, it was decreed that any Jew who did not convert to Christianity would be expelled from the country.

My Mind/Seventeen

My Mind/Seventeen is a 7-inch vinyl EP from Portugal. The Man.

Óbidos

:* Óbidos, Portugal, the municipal seat of the municipality of Óbidos

Pombal

::* Pombal, Portugal, a city/urban catchment in the municipality of Pombal

Portuguese colonialism in Indonesia

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach the islands of Indonesia.

Qwentin

After the success of this show, Qwentin returned to CCC in September for a presentation of a less theatrical nature, was also presented later in Portalegre during “Games 2006”.

Roussas

If you are looking for Roussas, a Portuguese parish in Melgaço, see Roussas (Melgaço)

The Sims 3: Generations

Portugal. The Man have also contributed the song "Everything You See (Kids Count Hallelujahs)" from their forthcoming album In The Mountain In The Cloud.

Tiro de Diu

After the defeat of the Muslim forces, the gun was sent to Lisbon, first being set in the Castle of São Jorge and, after 1640, in the Fortress of S. Julião da Barra, in Oeiras, to defend the mouth of the River Tagus.

Trofa

:* Trofa, Portugal, the urbanized city and municipal seat of the municipality of Trofa

Vale Verde International School

Vale Verde International School (VVIS) is an international school located in Burgau, Algarve, Portugal.


1998 Estoril Open

Both the men's and the women's events took place at the Estoril Court Central, in Oeiras, Portugal, from April 6 through April 13, 1998.

2010 Men's European Volleyball League

In the final four tournament, the semi-final matches featured Portugal and Spain defeating Romania (3–2) and Turkey (3–0), respectively, to produce a rematch of the 2007 final.

Active Space Technologies

Founded in 2004, the company's work and expansion has been reported in several media, including Expresso, Correio da Manhã, The Wall Street Journal, Diário As Beiras, Público, Diário de Coimbra, RDP Antena 1, Jornal de Notícias, TSF, Agência Lusa, Rádio Universidade de Coimbra, El Mundo, RTP 2, Rádio Renascença, etc.

Alberto de Lacerda

In Portugal, he created a series of poems that were published in the Portucale magazine.

Alexandrina Maria da Costa

In June 1938, based on the request of Father Mariano Pinho, a jesuit priest, several bishops from Portugal wrote to Pope Pius XI, asking him to consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, based on the reported messages received directly from Jesus and Virgin Mary by Alexandrina Maria da Costa.

Anália Rosa

Anália de Oliveira Rosa (born 28 February 1976 in Troviscal, Oliveira do Bairro) is a Portuguese long-distance runner who competes in cross country, track and road running events, including the marathon.

António Arnault

António Duarte Arnault, GOL (born 1936 in Cumieira, Penela, Portugal) is a Portuguese poet, fiction writer, essayist, lawyer, and politician.

António José de Ávila, 1st Duke of Ávila and Bolama

After another eight years, on 14 May 1878, King Luis raised him still higher to Duque de Ávila e Bolama (Duke of Ávila and Bolama), thus making him the first non-noble-born individual so honored, especially in view of the fact that the title of Duke was, traditionally, granted in Portugal solely to members of high nobility and relatives of the Portuguese Royal Family.

Armando Santiago

From 1962 to 1964 he studied in Rome with Boris Porena privately and with Goffredo Petrassi at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia through grants awarded to him by the governments of Portugal and Italy.

Arthur Dunkel

Arthur Dunkel (August 26, 1932 - June 8, 2005) was a Swiss (Portuguese-born) administrator.

Cabo de Santo Agostinho

Although the official Portuguese discovery of Brazil was by Pedro Álvares Cabral on April 21, 1500, some historians believe that Vicente Yáñez Pinzón already had set anchor in a bay in Cabo de Santo Agostinho on January 26, 1500, which he named Cabo de Santa María de la Consolación.

CroisiEurope

In France, CroisiEurope sail on the Seine, the Rhône, the Saône, the Gironde, the Meuse, and the Rhine; in Italy, on the Po; in Spain, on the Guadalquivir; in Portugal, on the Guadiana and the Douro; in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, on the Rhine; in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, and Romania, on the Danube; and in Germany, on the Havel and the Oder.

David ben Judah Messer Leon

However, in 1495 the city fell to the French under Charles VIII, and he fled east to the Ottoman Empire to escape the violent pogroms that ensued, spending time in Istanbul before moving sometime between 1498 and 1504 to teach Torah in Salonica, at that time in a state of intellectual vibrancy due to the settlement there of many Sephardi exiles forced to leave after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, Sicily in 1493, and Portugal in 1496.

Edward Quillinan

His latter years had been chiefly employed in translations of Luís de Camões' Lusiad, five books of which were completed, and of Alexandre Herculano's History of Portugal.

Eleanor of Portugal

Eleanor of Portugal, Holy Roman Empress (1434–1467), daughter of Edward I of Portugal and wife of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor

Escola Superior de Estudos Industriais e de Gestão

The Escola Superior de Estudos Industriais e de Gestão (Superior School of Industrial Studies and Management) or ESEIG is a higher learning polytechnic school in the conurbation of Póvoa de Varzim and Vila do Conde, Portugal.

Filipe Augusto

Filipe Augusto Carvalho Souza (born 12 August 1993 in Bahia, Brazil) is a Brazilian footballer who currently plays as a defensive midfielder for Portuguese top side Rio Ave.

Harpalus anxius

In Europe, it is only absent in the following countries or islands: Andorra, the Azores, the Canary Islands, the Channel Islands, Crete, Cyclades, Cyprus, Dodecanese, the Faroe Islands, Franz Josef Land, Gibraltar, Iceland, Madeira, Malta, Monaco, the North Aegean islands, Norway, Novaya Zemlya, Portugal, San Marino, the Savage Islands, Sicily, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, and Vatican City.

Henning Mankell

In his youth Mankell was a left-wing political activist and a strong opponent of the Vietnam War, South African apartheid, and Portugal's colonial war in Mozambique.

Hintze Ribeiro disaster

On the night of March 4, 2001, the Hintze Ribeiro disaster occurred when the Hintze Ribeiro Bridge, made of steel and concrete, collapsed in Entre-os-Rios, Castelo de Paiva, Portugal, killing 59 people, including those in a bus and three cars that were attempting to get to the other side of the Douro River.

House of Asturias

Stanley G. Payne, A History of Spain and Portugal, Volume 1, Chapter Three (The Early Christian Principalities and the Expansion of

Hyacinthoides paivae

Hyacinthoides paivae is endemic to the north-western part of the Iberian Peninsula, including western parts of Galicia (A Coruña, Ourense and Pontevedra provinces) and north-western parts of Portugal (Beira Litoral, Douro Litoral, Minho and Trás-os-Montes provinces).

Ibero-German

Ibero-German means of or pertaining to people of Spanish or Portuguese descent living in Germany or the German speaking countries.

Ibón Pérez Arrieta

In his country, Pérez could never play in higher than the third division in his beginnings, moving in 2001 to Iberian Peninsula neighbours Portugal with Desportivo de Chaves where he scored at incredible rate, always in the second division.

Jorge Sampaio

His maternal grandmother Sara Bensliman Bensaúde, who died in 1976, was a of Sephardi Jew from Morocco of Portuguese origin, and his maternal grandfather Fernando Branco (1880–1940) was a Naval Officer of the Portuguese Navy and later the Foreign Minister of Portugal; Sampaio himself is agnostic, and does not consider himself a Jew.

José Villalobos

He was a member of Costa Rica U23 team who competed at 2004 Summer Olympics, playing the full 90 minutes in all matches as Costa Rica lost to Argentina on the quarterfinals and scoring in the group stage match against Portugal.

Koimbani

Koimbani is a town located on the island of Grande Comore in the Comoros, believed to have been built by the Portuguese.

La Belle Alliance

Blücher, the Prussian commander, suggested that the battle should be remembered as la Belle Alliance, to commemorate the European Seventh Coalition of Britain, Russia, Prussia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, and a number of German States which had all joined the coalition to defeat the French Emperor.

La Caixa

At the end of 2007, La Caixa had 5,480 branches, of which 5,468 are located throughout Spain and two operating abroad (Warsaw, Poland and Bucharest, Romania), and 10 representative offices in Germany, Belgium, China, France, Italy, Morocco, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

Leonardo Jardim

Born in Barcelona, Anzoátegui, Venezuela, to Portuguese parents who had settled in the country, Jardim returned to Portugal at a very young age, relocating to the island of Madeira.

Magdolna Purgly

Due to her son's skill, the family managed to move to Estoril, Portugal.

Maria Armanda

The song was chosen to represent Portugal, in Bologna, in the 1980 edition of the Zecchino d'Oro, a festival of little known songs with profits going to the well-known charity UNICEF, with Armanda Maria emerging victorious with a song entitled "Ho visto un rospo".

Martim Afonso Telo de Meneses

Martim Afonso Telo de Meneses (died in Toro, 26 January 1356), was a Portuguese nobleman, member of the Téllez de Meneses lineage, and the father of Leonor Telles de Meneses, queen consort of Portugal.

Moura, Queensland

In 1854 Charles Marshall named the local property Moura after Moura in Portugal where he served in the British Army during the Peninsular Wars.

Parish Assembly

Assembleia de freguesia, the assembly of LAU 2 local government in Portugal

Portugal national table tennis team

Portugal has one of the best Table Tennis team of the World.The team is composed by Marcos Freitas, Tiago Apolónia and João Pedro Monteiro.

Portuguese-style bullfighting

Ana Batista, Sónia Matias and Ana Rita are among the first and most renowned cavaleiras of Portugal.

Pró-Vida

After beginning activities in the city of São Paulo, at present PRO-VIDA has participating nuclei in various other Brazilian towns and in other countries, such as Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Italy, Mexico, Paraguay, Portugal, Spain and the United States of America, besides four country clubs: three in Brazil and one in Argentina.

Radoslav Zdravkov

During his professional career, which spanned nearly 20 years, Zdravkov represented Lokomotiv Sofia (1973–80), CSKA Sofia (1980–86), Portugal's G.D. Chaves (1986–89), Sporting de Braga (1989–90), Paços de Ferreira (1990–91) and F.C. Felgueiras (1991–92) - after he had left the Iron Curtain at the age of 30 - Yantra Gabrovo (1992–93) and Litex Lovech (1993–94).

Roman villa of Santo André de Almoçageme

In Santo André de Almoçageme, Sintra, Portugal, is located the westernmost villa of the Roman Empire with occupation from the second to the sixth centuries AD.

Sequeira Costa

José Carlos de Sequeira Costa (born 18 July 1929, Luanda, Angola) is a Portuguese pianist who is especially admired for his interpretations of the Romantic repertoire.

Stefan Heidemann

Co-operation with several archaeological missions especially in Syria among them at the citadels in Aleppo, Damascus and Masyaf, urban sites such as ar-Raqqa, and Kharab Sayyar, but also in Portugal, Mongolia, and Afghanistan Balkh.

Tartessian language

The script used in the mint of Salacia (Alcácer do Sal, Portugal) from around 200 BC may be related to the Tartessian script, though it has no syllable-vowel redundancy; violations of this are known, but it is not clear if the language of this mint corresponds with the language of the stelae (de Hoz 2010).

Tomaz Morais

The son of Portuguese settlers in Angola, Morais moved to Portugal following the 25 April 1974 revolution.

Tomé de Sousa

In 1552, Sousa suggested that Rio de Janeiro might be a potential area for settlement and in 1553 he returned to Portugal to work under the King, acting as his adviser on Brazilian affairs.

Trefftz method

The hybrid Trefftz method is also being applied to some fields, e.g. computational modeling of hydrated soft tissues or water-saturated porous media, through ongoing research project at the Technical University of Lisbon, Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal.

Wartenberg Trust

WartenbergTrust is a global multi-family office, wealth management and investment advisory firm established in 1921 to manage financial and other assets of the Wartenberg family in German-speaking Europe and from 1931 also in France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the US and Italy.

Wilfrid B. Israel

On 26 March 1943 Israel left London for Lisbon, Portugal and spent the next two months distributing certificates of entry to British ruled Palestine, and investigating the situation of Jews on the peninsula; during World War II the fascist regimes in Spain and Portugal sympathized with Nazi Germany but refused to hand over Jews to the Germans.