Montemor-o-Velho

History

In 711, the Arab occupation of the Iberian Peninsula began. Montemor-o-Velho, a fluvial-maritime port of great importance at the time, was the target of conquests and reconquests throughout the 9th to the 12th centuries: in 848 the first Christian reconquest of Montemor was made by king Ramiro I of León, who gave the castle to abbot João, who resisted in the same year the siege made by the caliph of Córdoba Abd al-Rahman II. In 878 Afonso III the Great occupied Coimbra and proceeded to repopulate the Mondego line; on December 2, 990 there was another onslaught of Arabs led by Almançor, who take the castle of Montemor-o-Velho, and its government is given to Froila Gonçalves, a descendant of the Portucalense count Gonçalo Moniz. This was dislodged during the reign of Alfonso V of León, by Mendo Luz, who recovered it for the Christians, later passing it on to Gonçalo Vieigas. In 1026 the Arabs conquered Montemor-o-Velho again, and in 1034 Gonçalo Trastamires recovered it again for the Christians, becoming its governor. After new Arab attacks, Fernando Magno, in 1064, definitively conquers Coimbra and the Mondego line, giving its government to Count D. Sisnando Davides, a Mozarab native of a settlement located in the vicinity of Montemor-o-Velho called Tentúgal. Raimundo, ruler of Galicia, personally governing Coimbra, gave a letter of settlement to Montemor in February 1095. At this time the river was the border between the Christian north and the Arab south, and a line of fortifications was built that included the castles of Avô, on the river Alva, Penacova, Lousã, Coimbra, Penela, Soure and Montemor. There is a curious popular legend about the origin of Montemor. It tells that a deep rivalry opposed the inhabitants of Montemor and Maiorca, because each one…