Region
Rio MaiorNEARBY
Óbidos
Peniche
Santarém
Casa do Moleiro
Santarém
Santarém is the capital of Ribatejo and is located amidst fertile fields. Agriculture and cattle breeding are its main resources. It has been inhabited since the Neolithic Era. The Romans conquered Santarém and changed the name to Scalabis Castrum. In the 7th century the people began to call the settlement Santa Irene or Santa Iria. The Moors took it in the 8th century. King Afonso Henriques conquered it in 1147 and gave it a charter in 1179. It was here that King Pedro I had the murderers of Inês de Castro executed. King João II was acclaimed King here in 1477.
In the 16th century, after the Battle of Alcácer Quibir, Santarém was the last town to cede to Spanish Occupation and the first to rise up in 1640 in the War of Restoration.
Santarém was elevated to a city in 1869. It is the Gothic Capital of Portugal and its grand monuments attest to its History and mystique.
