Portugal is around the size
of Scotland with twice the
population and has tremendous
variety both geographically and in
its ways of life and traditions.
Along the coast around Lisbon, and
on the well-developed Algarve in the
south, there are highly
sophisticated resorts, while the
vibrant capital Lisbon has enough
going on to please most city
devotees. But in its rural areas
this is still a conspicuously
underdeveloped country, and there
are plenty of opportunities to
experience smaller towns and
countryside regions that have
changed little in the past century.
In terms of population, and of
customs, differences between the north
and south are particularly
striking. Above a line more or less
corresponding with the course of the
River Tagus, the people are of
predominantly Celtic and Germanic
stock. It was here, at Guimarães,
that the "Lusitanian"
nation was born, in the wake of the
Christian reconquest from the North
African Moors. South of the Tagus,
where the Moorish and Roman
civilizations were most established,
people tend to be darker-skinned and
maintain more of a
"Mediterranean" lifestyle.
More recent events are woven into
the pattern. The 1974 revolution
came from the south - an area of
vast estates, rich landowners and a
dependent workforce - while the
conservative backlash of the 1980s
came from the north, with its
powerful religious authorities and
individual smallholders wary of
change. More profoundly even than
the revolution, emigration
has altered people's attitudes and
the appearance of the countryside.
After Lisbon, the largest Portuguese
community is in Paris, and there are
migrant workers spread throughout
France and Germany. Returning to
Portugal, these emigrants have
brought in modern ideas and
challenged many traditional rural
values.
The greatest of all Portuguese
influences, however, is the sea
. The Portuguese are very conscious
of themselves as a seafaring race;
mariners like Vasco da Gama led the
way in the exploration of Africa and
the Americas, and until less than
thirty years ago Portugal remained a
colonial power. The colonies brought
African and South American strands
to the country's culture: in the
distinctive music of fado ,
sentimental songs heard in Lisbon
and Coimbra, for example, or in the
Moorish-influenced and Manueline
architecture that abounds in coastal
towns like Belém and Viana do
Castelo.
Since Portugal is so compact,
it's easy to take in something of
each of its elements. Scenically,
the most interesting parts of the
country are in the north: the Minho
, green, damp, and often startling
in its rural customs; and the
sensational gorge and valley of the Douro
, followed along its course by the
railway, off which antiquated branch
lines edge into remote Trás-os-Montes
. For contemporary interest, spend
some time in both Lisbon and Porto
, the only two cities of real size.
And if it's monuments you're after,
the centre of the country - above
all, Coimbra and Évora
- retain a faded grandeur. The coast
is virtually continuous beach, and
apart from the Algarve and a
few pockets around Lisbon and Porto,
resorts remain low-key and
thoroughly Portuguese, with great
stretches of deserted sands between
them. Perhaps the loveliest are
along the northern Costa Verde
, around Viana do Castelo, or, for
isolation, the wild beaches of southern
Alentejo.
