Sacavém

Infobox Settlement
name =Sacavém
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pushpin_map_caption =Location within Portugal
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subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = Portugal
subdivision_type1 = District
subdivision_name1 = Lisbon
subdivision_type2 = Municipality
subdivision_name2 = Loures
subdivision_type3 = Parishes
subdivision_name3 = 1
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area_total_km2 =3.81
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population_as_of =2001
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population_total =17659
population_density_km2 =4255.2
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timezone = GMT
utc_offset = +0
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latd=38 |latm=47 |lats= |latNS=N
longd=09 |longm=06 |longs= |longEW=W
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website = [http://www.jfsacavem.pt http://www.jfsacavem.pt]
footnotes = Sacavém - Arabic: شقبان (pron. IPA2|sɐkɐ'vɐ̃ĩ) is a Portuguese city and parish ("freguesia"), in the municipality of Loures, just a few kilometers northeast of the Portuguese capital, Lisbon. The parish covers an area of convert|3.81|km2|sqmi|1|abbr=on, with a population of 17,659 inhabitants (according to a 2001 Census).

Sacavém was very well-known for its famous ceramics.

Geography

Sacavém is located in the eastern part of Loures municipality, bordering the parishes of Unhos (northwest), Camarate (west), Prior Velho (southwest), Portela (south) as well as Moscavide (southeast). To the east lies the river Tagus, and to north the Trancão (formerly known as "Sacavém River"), separating Sacavém from the Bobadela parish. The ribeira do Prior Velho also flows through the city crossing it in underground channels.

The parish's terrain is relatively flat. The bank of the Tagus is approximately at sea-level, while the border of Sacavém with the parishes of Camarate and Unhos is convert|60|m|ft|0|spell=us above the sea. However, there are several hills such as "monte Cintra" and "monte do Convento" (both reaching about convert|30|m|ft|0|abbr=on|disp=/ in height).

Traditionally, Sacavém has been divided in two halves:
* "Sacavém de Cima" ("Upper Sacavém"), comprising the historical center of the town, around the "Capela de Nossa Senhora da Saúde e de Santo André" ("chapel of Our Lady of Health and Saint Andrew");
* "Sacavém de Baixo" ("Lower Sacavém"), near the bank of the Trancão river, where the Parish Church and the old monastery of the Order of Poor Ladies are situated.

In the last few decades, besides these two urban areas, new urban boroughs have emerged, such as "Courela do Foguete", "Fonte Perra", "Olival Covo", "Quinta do Património", "Real Forte" as well as "Terraços da Ponte " (the latter one replacing the old and degraded "Quinta do Mocho", which housed, in poor conditions, over the past three decades, foreign African citizens, many of them natives of the former Portuguese colonies, that returned to Mainland Portugal after the Carnation Revolution in 1974).

History

From prehistory to Moorish rule

Due to its strategic location, at the intersection of pathways coming from the North and the East to Lisbon, Sacavém was important during several periods of Portuguese History.

There is evidence for human presence in the area since very ancient times. Portuguese historian Pinho Leal writes, in his monumental chorography "Portugal Antigo & Moderno" ("Old and New Portugal"), that "Sacavém is incontestably a very old settlement, and already existed in the time of the Romans".

The oldest known references date back to prehistory (Neolithic and, most probably, Chalcolithic; three polished stone axes have been discovered from the latter period); in the middle 1980s, excavations in the historical centre of the city revealed a cave with some artifacts from the period.

The next sure evidence does not come until the 1st century AD: Sacavém is crossed by two of the major roman roads in the Iberian Peninsula:

* "via XV", connecting Lisbon (at that time known as "Olisipo") to Mérida, Spain (then known as "Emerita Augusta"), going by the important administrative centre of "Scalabicastrum" (today's Santarém);
* "via XVI", connecting Lisbon and Braga (then, "Bracara Augusta", capital of "conventus bracarensis" in the province of "Gallaecia").

Remnants of these two Roman "viæ" still exist under the modern roads "António Ricardo Rodrigues" and "José Luís de Morais" (the two main streets of the town in the Middle Ages, connecting Upper and Lower Sacavém).

The importance of Sacavém and its river is significant even in this period; the Romans built a bridge that still existed in the 17 century, according to several sources, such as Francisco de Holanda or Miguel Leitão de Andrade. This bridge is the natural continuation of the two above-mentioned roads and connected Sacavém with the northern river bank; therefore indirectly included in the famous Antonine Itinerary. Even today, it is recorded in the city coat of arms as its main heraldic charge.

Also from the Roman period, an epigraphic inscription is said to have existed in Sacavém (nowadays unknown), which stated:

SILVIVS
MAG • I • TER
F • DAR • MAG
P • E • LIIII • P • V

However, no one could read it correctly until now.

The Roman rule was followed by Visigoths (who erected a chapel dedicated to "Our Lady of Pleasures", now under the ruins of "Our Lady of Victory Church") and then by Muslims.

The modern name "Sacavém" might come from the Arabic language; for many years experts believed that it came from the word "šagabi" (next or in the neighbourhood – in this case, of Lisbon, an important city even during Moorish period)) latinised to "sacabis, -is", becoming "sacabem" in the accusative case (from which the large majority of Latin origin words in Portuguese come), and hence, by phonetic modifications during the centuries, "Sacavém". Recent investigations, from Arabic sources (namely Yaqut's "Kitab mu’jam al-budan"), shows that the Muslims seem to have used the word "Šaqabān" (شقبان), incredibly similar to the modern Portuguese pronunciation.

The "Reconquista" and the Middle Ages

According to an old legend, it was near the bank of the Trancão that the mythical battle of Sacavém river took place, between King Afonso I of Portugal and the Moors, in October 1147. The tradition (fixed probably in the 16th century) says that the Moorish people had gathered around 5000 men from all Estremadura (Alenquer, Óbidos, Tomar, Torres Novas and Torres Vedras) to fight against only 1500 Christians, but the latter defeated the Muslims in a large blood bath, with this wondrous victory personally attributed to the intervention of the Holy Virgin, which brought many Christians speaking strange languages (this is, the crusades that took Lisbon that same year).

The legend says also that the Moorish leader Bezai Zaide had even converted to Christianity and became the first priest at the "chapel of Our Lady of Martyrs" that Afonso Henriques ordered to be built just a few days after the clash. On the other hand, the first Portuguese monarch had also ordered the rebuilding of the old Visigoth "chapel of Our Lady of Pleasures", ruined during the Moorish rule (although Christian faith in Al-Andaluz was allowed by the emirs against the payment of a tribute). This church was dedicated to "Our Lady of Victory", and became the seat of the ecclesiastical parish.

However, the first documented mention of Sacavém is in 1191 (forty-four years after the conquest), in a paper signed by King Sancho I of Portugal.

Pinho Leal reported that in the 12th century Sacavém was a parish with 900 houses, but this number is, however, regarded today as too high for that time. During the 13th century, it seems that in Sacavém existed an important Jewish community, living in a ghetto outside the parish.

In 1288, the priest of Sacavém was one of the signatories of a letter requesting that the Pope Nicholas IV install a university in Lisbon.

At the end of the 14th century King Ferdinand I of Portugal donated Sacavém to his wife Leonor Telles de Menezes. Although the place belonged at that time thus to the sphere of influence of the queen-consort, it supported the later king John I of Portugal in his struggle for power. Therefore, after his triumph in 1385, Sacavém was administratively included in Lisbon, but donated to the major supporter of the new king, Nuno Álvares Pereira. Later, by the wedding of his daughter to the first Duke of Braganza, Sacavém became a property of the powerful House of Braganza.

São João da Talha, until then known as "Sacavém Extra-Muros" ("Sacavém outside the walls") became an independent parish, split from Sacavém in 1387.

In the Late Middle Ages, several chronicles (such as those of Duarte Nunes de Leão and Rui de Pina) mentioned Sacavém. These two chroniclers stated that the royal family, before the conquest of Ceuta in 1415, fled to Sacavém, in order to escapes from the plague that arose in Lisbon. There the queen-consort Philippa of Lancaster died of the plague, her body was carried to Batalha where her remains were buried. However, another chronicler, Gomes Eanes de Zurara reports that the royal family fled to Odivelas (and therefore not to Sacavém), and that the queen died there.

External links

* [http://www.jfsacavem.pt/ Junta de Freguesia de Sacavém] pt icon