Camarate

Infobox_Parish_pt
official_name = Camarate
image_coat_of_arms = LRS-camarate.png Municipality = Loures
area_total = 5.17
population_total = 18,822 (2001)
population_density = 3,640
website = http://www.jfcamarate.pt

Camarate (pron. IPA2|kɐmɐ'ɾatɨ) is a ("freguesia") in the municipality ("concelho") of Loures, District of Lisbon ("Lisboa"), Portugal. Located to the east of Lisbon, it borders Apelação, Frielas, Prior Velho, Sacavém and Unhos in the Loures municipality, parts of Odivelas and Lisbon, and the Portela de Sacavém airport. Camarate has an area of 5.52 km² and a population of 23,000 as of 2001.

The patron saint of the Camarate parish is Saint James the Great, to whom the Church of Santiago de Camarate, with its magnificent baroque paintings and altars, is dedicated. The parish was created in 1511 by a royal decree of King Emmanuel I separating it from the parish of Sacavém. Camarate was elevated to the status of a village by a decree of the Portuguese National Assembly in 1996.

Camarate was historically a country retreat for the Lisboan nobility. It was well-known for its local wine, produced in the fertile farms that characterized the parish until the mid-twentieth century. Since then, industrialization has transformed it into an urbanized town.Camarate is famous for being the home of 20th century Portuguese poet and pioneer of Portuguese literary modernism Mário de Sá Carneiro. Sadly, it is known for being the site of the accident or possible assassination that took the life of the Portuguese social-democrat Prime-Minister Francisco Sá Carneiro and his wife, and also the Christian-Democrat Defense Minister Adelino Amaro da Costa, on December 4, 1980, preceding the presidential elections of the same year.

External links

* [http://www.jfcamarate.pt/ Junta de Freguesia de Camarate] pt icon