Beja
Situated on a hill (277 m), commanding a strategic position over the vast plains of the Baixo Alentejo, Beja was already an important place in antiquity. Already inhabited in Celtic times, the town was later named Pax Julia by Julius Caesar in 48 BCE, when he made peace with the Lusitanians. He raised the town to be the capital of the southernmost province of Lusitania (Santarém and Braga were the other capitals of the conventi). During the reign of emperor Augustus the thriving town became “Pax Augusta”. It was already then a strategic road junction.
When the Visigoths took over the region, the town, then called Paca, became the seat of a bishopric. Saint Aprígio (died in 530) became the first Visigothic bishop of Paca. The town fell to the invading Umayyad army in 713.
Starting in 910 there were successive attempts of conquest and reconquest by the Christian kings. With the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031, Beja became a taifa, an independent Muslim-ruled principality
Only with Manuel I in 1521 did Beja again reach the status of city. It was attacked and occupied by the Portuguese and the Spanish armies during the Portuguese Restoration War (1640–1667).
Beja became again the head of a bishopric in 1770, more than a thousand years after the fall of the Visigothic city. In 1808 Napoleonic troops under General Junot sacked the city and massacred the inhabitants.
Monuments:
Convento do Sagrado Coração de Jesus (Carmelo de Beja) |Castelo | Pelourinho | Sé Catedral | Igreja do Salvador | Ermida de Santo André | Hospital da Misericórdia | Igreja da Misericórdia de Beja | Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Pé da Cruz | Igreja de Nossa Senhora dos Prazeres de Beja | Igreja de Santo Amaro | Igreja Matriz de Santa Maria da Feira | Monumento ao prisioneiro político desconhecido | Arquivo Distrital | Arquivo Municipal | Biblioteca Municipal de Beja José Saramago | Casa da Cultura | Conservatório Regional do Baixo Alentejo | Espaço Museológico Rua do Sembrano | Galeria dos Escudeiros | Museu Botânico da ESAB/IP | Museu Jorge Vieira – Casa das Artes | Museu Rainha Dona Leonor (Museu Regional de Beja) | Núcleo Visigótico | Praça de Touros | Teatro Municipal Pax Julia
Places to visit:
Aljustrel, Almodôvar, Alvito, Barrancos, Castro Verde, Ferreira do Alentejo, Mértola, Moura, Odemira, Ourique, Serpa, Vidigueira.
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