Cambas

Cambas is a Portuguese city.

Geography

Cambas is in a mountainous region characteristic of the center of Portugal and is consequently rather close to the culminating point of Portugal, Tightened it da Estrela which rises with: 2000 meters of altitude. Cambas is also close to the mountains to Sôr, Amarela, Lousã and Alvelos which culminate with more: 1000 meters as well as the high mountain of the 800 meters Muradal. Cambas belongs to the district of Castelo Branco and the canton of Oleiros. Cambas is located in an enormous zone of pine forests which was still there is little one of the most important forest zones of Europe. Unfortunately, these last years, of many arsons or not made enormous devastations on the ecosystem of the area, thus destroying one of the main wealths of the center of Portugal. Among the splendid landscapes surrounding Cambas, it is necessary to quote:

dam Santa Luzia which is integrated perfectly in the wild medium of the area, by thus doing one of most beautiful country.
the mines of Panasqueira which are the largest mines of suffers from Europe.
Some of the historical villages of the country as for example Piodão but also some others which are not classified historic buildings while keeping their originality and their atmosphere of antan. It is the case of Rouco de Baixo and Cima, Praçais, Fajão, Janeiro de Baixo for example. It is still possible there to see there schist houses and the lifestyle of certain inhabitants who evolved/moved very little since of the generations.

History

The word “Cambas”, étymologiquement, means “turns”. Therefore, Cambas is the commune of the turns.

The word Cambas existed in Latin, in the form “Camba, cambae”, meaning turn. This word exists still today in Portuguese with the same significance as formerly in Latin. Nevertheless this word has, seems it, an origin different from the other Latin words which come for the majority from the Etruscan. The Etruscans were to the principal people of the Italique peninsula. They founded the Roman Empire and influenced the language of all the other people of this peninsula. Later the Romans, as large conquering people, assimilated good number of the words and expressions of the people which submitted themselves to them. And much of those have a Celtic origin and belonged to the people which, before the Romans, occupied the Iberian peninsula, of which the territory which constitutes Portugal today.

One of these terms was certainly “Cambas” which has probably a Celtic origin with the root “Kamb” which meant snake, to curve and also turns, in the direction where the turns follow one another and end up representing the shape of a snake. It is with this direction that the word passed to Latin then to Portuguese. It should however be noted that this expression today very seldom is used and practically fell in disuse.

After this historical analysis of its name, we can deduce from it that, if the commune existed before the arrival of the Romans, it seems natural that its name was Kamb or Cambas, with the direction of “village located along the turns of the river”. This is with the situation of the village compared to the river Zêzere.

If we refer to a text of last century writes by the Manual Father Dias Barata, originating in the commune of Cambas, it described there the river like “broadside of so thick forests and cliffs if escarpées and abrupt than ever nobody had dared to venture there”. We can thus easily imagine why it was given the name of Cambas to this village: Cambas was without any doubt the place most representative of this place of the river which seen top evokes the shape of the snake. It was thus the first and last representing turns of the river, the remainder of the course in order to reach the following villages being perfectly inaccessible along the banks. And so according to the words of the Manual Father Dias Barata which go back to a hundred years, this task was so difficult, imagine a little what that represented at the time of the Roman conquests…

The word Cambas indicating a village appears at the time of Dom Sancho 1st, king of Portugal between 1185 and 1211 after J.C., which colonized the territories of the south of the country like Algarve. We find trace of Cambas for the first time on July 5th, 1199, dates to which Dom Sancho 1st, at the time of its passage to Covilhã, entrusts the management of the area to the churches of Mogadouro and Penas Roias, with a territory delimited by Oleiros, the mountain of Muradal and the Zêzere river. In this edict, it arises that the site of Cambas existed already previously and it is also specified that the place was located along the way which went from Oleiros to Covilhã.

Thanks to this situation, it is normal that at the 12th century Cambas was already the place of crossing of this way which probably skirted Zêzere to this place. The travellers there passed left bank to Right Bank and continued then by Ademoço, Penedos de Janeiro, Janeiro de Baixo, Dornelas, Ourondo, Paùl and finally arrived at Covilhã. There remain still some vestiges of this way with Cambas. For example, close to the port of the boats at the bottom of the village, marked in the rock, there remains prints of wheels left by the carts. The depth of these traces indicates a point of important passage to us and during one long period.

Historically, it thus proves that the evolution of the small villages which compose the commune of Cambas confuses with the birth of Portugal. It should be noted that it is refers in some documents of time to a settlement former to the 12th century in the field of Cambas, such as for example close to the Rocks of Janeiro. These natural cliffs, the top of a hundred meters height overhanging Zêzere, constitutent the place more escarpé of the commune.

The settlement of this area, with the length of the reconquest of these grounds by the first kings of Portugal, quickly proved to be necessary. This is mainly with the strategic situation of certain villages located along the river and of this fact constituted a natural border a long time.

One of the main actors of the life of these communes, with the length of the centuries, was the Church. That Ci was during decades principal representing of the king and of this fact the hand put on the areas of the center, moved away from the coasts had where the leaders of the country lived.

In Cambas, the Church was owner of the boat which allowed the crossing of the river. It thus collected a good part of the taxes of the area, the crossing being of course paying. Cambas was the seat of a small priory pertaining to the royal Prior who was directly named by the king of Portugal. The prior, in addition to the goods which it had personally and the share of taxes which returned to him from right, annually received a revenue on behalf of the king. In fact the church of Cambas was one of richest of all the area. The priory of Saint Jean-Baptiste de Cambas (his official name) also belonged of many years to the diocese of Guarda and was then the church best parcelled out of all Portugal.

Mister the prior of Saint Jean-Baptiste de Cambas, had herds of goats and sheep, chestnut groves, many olive-trees and immense grounds, like two or three horses for his private displacements. It was the church which made build channels which allowed the irrigation of the cultivable grounds furthest away from the river. These channels always exist and certain continue to render great services to the local farmers. The old Holy Priory Jean-Baptiste de Cambas had the capacity on the villages which constitute the current commune of Cambas. To those were added the commune of Vilar Barroco who was annexed to the 18th century, as some of the villages who form the commune of Estreito today, such as for example Roqueiro, Retaxo, Vale de Orvalho and Torre. It was also the case of the commune of Orvalho which acquired its independence at the 15th century and became an antenna of the church of Janeiro de Baixo.

Then, in January of the year 1792, a bubble of the Black and white Pope VI, “Quoniam Ecclesiasticum”, confirmed in January 1794 by an edict, the villages of Roqueiro, Retaxo, Vale da Torre and Orvalho, more close relations geographically of Estreito that from Cambas, fell under the cut from the parish from Estreito (it-Ci had been founded at the 16th century) but continued administratively and juridically to belong to Cambas and the canton of Fundão.

Territorial limits of the parish and the commune of Cambas, which saw we it until now do not stop moving with the wire of the centuries were definitively fixed by the decree of December 29th, 1836. It is this decree which has for the first time built-in the commune of Cambas in the canton of Oleiros, just as those of Orvalho and Vilar Barroco. Moreover, all the places which depended on the parish of Estreito it would be also in an administrative way. During twenty years after this decree, Cambas sailed between the cantons of Fundão and Oleiros. This last disappeared besides on January 14th, 1868 and Cambas was found in the canton of Pampilhosa da Serra, while Orvalho and Vilar Barroco turned over in the canton of Fundão. Almost two years later, i.e. on December 28th, 1869, the Canton of Oleiros is reformed by the royalty with all the villages which were before under its supervision.

Finally, L September 7th, 1895, the commune of Cambas is dissolved. So the villages of Pisoria, and Rouco de Baixo, located on left bank of the river (Cambas is on that of right-hand side) integrate the commune of Amieira. The villages of Right Bank which constitute the essence of the commune regressed with the commune of Janeiro de Baixo. But, on May 21st, 1896 all returns in the order and the commune of Cambas takes again its old statute as all its grounds disseminated in the neighbouring communes to restore its limits such as we know them today.

The river Zêzere

Affluent of Right Bank of Tejo, it is, after the river Mondego, the largest river fascinating birth in Portugal. Its source is located in Tightened da Estrela (the culminating point of Portugal) with approximately 1900 meters of altitude to the locality “Cântaro magro”. It takes the south-western direction then, to complete its race in the west of Constância, after a long course of 200 kilometers.

Its principal affluent by the volume of water are:

on Right Bank Alge, Cabril, Unhais, Nabão, the Paul and Pêra
on left bank Bogas, Decayed it, the Codes, Isna, Meimoa, Sertã and Teixeira.

The entire surface of Zêzere and its affluents is of: 5043 km ² of which: 1056 km ² belong to Nabão. The large uneven ones of the river added with its water flow (sometimes higher than: 10000 cubic meters at the second) constitute an excellent hydro-electric energy producer. There are besides along the course of Zêzere four stoppings (Boçã, Cabril, Castelo of Bode and Constância) which annually produce 700 million kilowatts/hour.

Population

Cambas, currently, is the only commune located at the edge of Zêzere whose territory is located on two banks of the river. Part of the commune is wedged besides in that of Pampilhosa da Serra, a city close belonging it to the district to Coimbra. Cambas depends as for it on Oleiros, located in the district of Castelo Branco and depends on the diocese of the latter as well as that of Portalegre, in full center of the country.

Cambas today has approximately a thousand of inhabitants. Those are divided into ten villages as some localities of which some count only one or two inhabitants. Like many communes of the center of Portugal, there was in Cambas an important depopulation in the decades 1960 and 1970 and one counts approximately 2000 inhabitants who emigrated abroad or in the big cities of the country since 1960. Many people went to France, Switzerland and Germany (it did not emigrate practically more today besides there originating in Cambas in this country). Much also chose a closer departure, in the Portuguese big cities like Lisbon, Coimbra, Aveiro, Leiria and Castelo Branco, which enables them to often return in the year to spend the holidays or simply to see their close relations remained at the village.

Site on CAMBAS

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