Lisbon is the capital and more the big city of the Portugal, located on the mouth of the river Tage. In addition to being the capital of the country, it is also the capital of the area of Lisbon, the metropolitan sector (or district) of Lisbon and is also the principal center of the under-area of the Grand Lisbon. The city listed 564  477 inhabitants in 2001, but gathers in its metropolitan sector approximately 3 million inhabitants, which makes the most populated city of it country. Lisbon is the richest city of Portugal with a GDP per capita higher than the European average. Two agencies of the European Union have their seat in Lisbon: the European Observatory of drugs and drug-addiction and the European Agency for the maritime security. CPLP (Comunidade back Países de Língua Portuguesa, the Community of the countries of Portuguese language) has also its seat in Lisbon.

The city corresponds to the council (concelho) of Lisbon, of a surface of 83,84 km ². The population density is of 6  518 habitants/km ². The concelho is subdivided in 53 districts (freguesias). It is bordering in north with the communes on Odivelas and Loures, in the west with Oeiras, the North-West with Amadora and south-east with the estuary of Tage. Through the estuary, Lisbon is in contact with the councils of the Southern Margin: Almada, Seixal, Barreiro, Moita, Montijo and Alcochete.

“Lisbon is not seen, it feels. ”… This is a quite typical sentence to describe the Capital of the Sea, this city which knew an important golden age in XIVe and XVe centuries, time to which one even said that the city felt spices.

History

See also: History of Lisbon

Toponymy

Lisbon is also named:
  • Lisboa in Portuguese,
  • Alis Ubbo in Phénicien,
  • old Olissipo in Greek,
  • Congratulated Julia in Latin,
  • Lisbon in English,
  • German Lissabon in ,
  • Russian Лиссабон in ,
  • Olissipona in Vulgar Latin,
  • لشبونة in Arab

Neolithic era with the Roman Empire

During the Neolithic , the area was inhabited by a branch of the population Indo-European called pre-ibère . As in other places of the Atlantic Europe, this population built religious monuments such as megaliths, dolmens and menhirs which are still visible with the neighborhoods of the city. Certain Celtic people came into contact with the preones and were established in the zone before the first millenium before J. - C., thus leading to the appearance of tribes of Celtic language like the Conii and the Cempsii .

Roman Empire with the Arab conquest

During the Punic Wars, after the death of Hannibal Barca (of which the troops included members of the tribe of the Conii ), the Romans decided to deprive Carthage of its most invaluable possession: the Hispanie (name given by the Roman to the Iberian peninsula). After the Carthaginian defeat vis-a-vis Scipion the African in Hispanie Eastern, the pacification of the west was concluded by the consul Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus. He signed an agreement with Olissipo , old name of Lisbon, so that this one sends its inhabitants to fight with the Roman legions against the Celtic tribes of the North-West. In return, Olissipo was integrated into the Empire under the name of Felicitas Julia , becoming municipe of Roman law. The political autonomy was granted to him on a territory of 50 km around the city; the inhabitants were exempted taxes and they obtained the Roman citizenship. The city belonged to the province of Lusitanie whose capital was Emerita Augusta . The attacks of the Lusitanians against the city during the frequent rebellions weakened it and a wall had to be built.

During the reign of the emperor Auguste, the Romans built several buildings there: a large theater, thermal baths, located in current the Rua da Prata, temples of Jupiter, mythology, Cybèle, Téthys and Idae Phrygiae (a rare worship coming from the Minor Asia), of the temples in the honor of the emperor, large a necropolis under the current place of Figueira, a forum and other buildings like the Insula E , a zone of residences located between the current hill of the castle and the center of the city. Many of these ruins was put at the day about the middle 18th century, when the discovery of Pompéi caused a fashion of the Archéologie among the European rich person.

Olissipo was known for its Garum which was exported in amphoras to Rome and other cities. The famous wine, salt and its horses were the principal products of export of the city. It thrived when piracy disappeared and that technological advances allowed the expansion of the trade with the new Roman provinces of Brittany (in particular Cornouailles) and of the area of the Rhine, and also with the populations which lived along the valley of Tage. The city was governed by an oligarchy dominated by two families, the Julii and the Cassiae . The files give a report on requests made to the governor of the province with Mérida and with the emperor Tibère, for example that in which they solicited of the assistance to fight the marine monsters which attacked the boats. The most famous Romain of the Lisbon was Sertorius which directed a rebellion against the dictator Sylla. The majority of the inhabitants spoke the Latin , with minorities of Greek tradesmen and slaves. The city was connected by roads to two other cities, Bracara Auguste in the province Tarraconense (currently the Portuguese city of Braga) and Emerita Auguste (currently Mérida).

Government Moor

Lisbon was taken by the Arab towards 711 (it received the name of Al-ʾIšbūnah, in Arabic الأشبونة), under the government of which the city thrived. The Moors, who were Moslems of the North of the Africa and Proche the East, built several Mosquée S, of the dwellings and the walls of the city, which are currently called " Cerca Moura". The city sheltered a various population among which were Christians, the Berber ones, Arabic, Jews and Saqaliba S.

Arabic was imposed like official language. The Mozarabe was the language which spoke the Christian population. The Islam was the official religion, practiced by the Arabs and the muladís, and the Christians and Jews could practice their religion, in the capacity as Dhimmi S, on the condition of paying the Jizya.

The name of Alfama, the oldest district of Lisbon, derives from Arabic Al-hamma. In 858, Lisbon is plundered during thirteen days by the chief Viking Hasting.

For the period Taifa, Lisbon belonged to Taifa de Badajoz, and was directed by Sabur Al-Saqlabi.

In 1147, during the Reconquest, a group of knights French, English, German S, and Portuguese, led by Alfonso, besieged and conquered Lisbon, which passes then in Christian hands.

The reconquest of the Portugal and the re-establishment of the Christianisme are one of the most significant events of the history lisbonnaise; however it is known that there was before a bishop in the city which was assassinated by the Crusaders and which the population requested the Virgin when an epidemic of plague was declared. Arabic lost his statute of official language and little by little ceased being used in the daily life. The Muslim population which remained is converted with Catholicism or was expelled, while the mosques were transformed into churches.

The Middle Ages with the Portuguese Empire

Lisbon received its first For (legal status of royal protection, in Portuguese aforamento) in 1179, it becomes the capital of Portugal in 1255, thanks to its central localization in the Portuguese territory.

During the last centuries of the the Middle Ages, the city developed much and was transformed into an important economic center.

In 1290, Denis I {{er}} founded a university school called Estudo Geral (General Study), currently Université of Coïmbre, which was transferred on several occasions to Coïmbre to fix itself at it in a final way at the 16th century. The city remelts its own university in 1911 after centuries of inactivity, by joining together various schools and preexistent university colleges (for example the Polytechnic school). There are currently three public universities in the city, the University of Lisbon, the Technical Université of Lisbon and the new University of Lisbon, and a private academic institute, the ISCTE.

Portuguese forwardings of the Great Discoveries in majority left Lisbon between the 15th century and the 17th century, including the forwarding of Vasco de Gama towards the Indies in 1497.

At the 16th century it is the golden age of Lisbon. The city is essential like point of European trade with Far East, while the gold of Brazil arrives at the city.

After the incorporation of Portugal to the Hispanic Monarchy of Philippe II of Castille, Ier d' Aragon and Ier of Portugal (1580), it was planned to install the royal court in Lisbon, but one gave up it, for the benefit of Madrid, where one had fixed the capital in 1561. The principal disorders of the restoration of 1640, which led to the Indépendance of Portugal, took place in Lisbon.

January 26th, 1531, the city suffered from a seism which killed out of the thousands of people. At the beginning of the 18th century, during the reign of João V, the city obtains an extraordinary public installation for the time: the Aqueduct of Interstitial waters.

  • Treated of Lisbon (1668).

November 1st 1755, Lisbon was destroyed by a seism, which killed between 60  000 and 90  000 people and destroyed 85% of the city. Voltaire wrote a Poème on the disaster of Lisbon , just after it took place, and mentioned the seism in its novel Candide in 1759 (in fact, some make the point that its criticism of optimism was inspired by this seism).

After the seism of 1755, the city was rebuilt according to the plans of the marquis de Pombal, this is why the center of the city is called Baixa Pombalina. Instead of rebuilding the medieval city, the marquis of Pombal decided to destroy what had resisted the seism and to rebuild the city according to the principles of town planning of the time. The squaring adopted within rebuilding made it possible to conceive the places of Rossio and Terreiro C Paço, the latter with a very beautiful arcade open on Tage.

XIXe and XXe centuries

At the beginning of the 19th century, Portugal was invaded by the troops of Napoleon i, obliging the king Jean VI to flee with the Brésil. Lisbon particularly suffered from this invasion because of many properties were plundered by the French. During the Portuguese civil war, lived intensely by the city, the first coffees and theaters transfer the day. In 1879, was created the Avenida da Liberdade , which made it possible the metropolis to extend beyond the Baixa .

It is in Lisbon, on October 5th, 1910, that was proclaimed the Portuguese Republic. It is as there as the assassination of Carlos Ier in 1908 took place.

During the Second world war, Lisbon being one of the rare neutral ports of Atlantic Europe, it became an exit door for the refugees towards the United States and a nest of spies.

It is in Lisbon that the Revolution of the eyelets took place which, in 1974, put an end to the dictatorial mode which had been founded in 1928. In 1988, a fire in the district of the Chiado upset the normal life in this sector during ten years. Lisbon was European Capitale Culture in 1994. The Expo '98 coincided with the commemoration of the 500e birthday of the voyage on the Route of the Indies of Vasco de Gama. This event was the occasion of a major reorganization of the city.

The Stratégie of Lisbon is an agreement of the European Union concerning of measurements for the improvement of the European economy, signed in Lisbon in 1999.

Contemporary events

  • In Lisbon took place the 27e meets annual community of Taizé from December 28th, 2004 to January 1st, 2005.

Each March takes place the semi-marathon of Lisbon, one of the most famous sports events in the world of the athletics.

Various meetings of institutions like the European Union or NATO proceed regularly in the Portuguese capital.

  • In January 2006, Lisbon was the starting point of the Rallye Dakar.

The Rock festival in Rio chose it twice like town of reception in 2004 and 2006, bringing together artists like Metallica, Shakira, Pink Guns and Roger Waters.

  • Lisbon was the European capital of the culture in 1994.

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