Vidigueira (, ), officially the Town of Vidigueira (), is a town and a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the

District of Beja A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 5,932, in an area of 316.61 km².Áreas das freguesias, concelhos, distritos e país
/ref> The present Mayor is Manuel Rosa Narra, elected by the

Unitary Democratic Coalition The Unitary Democratic Coalition (, CDU) is an electoral and political coalition between the Portuguese Communist Party () and the Ecologist Party "The Greens" ( Portuguese: Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes" or PEV). The coalition also integrates ...

. The municipal holiday is

Ascension Day The Feast of the Ascension of Jesus Christ (also called the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, Ascension Day, Ascension Thursday, or sometimes Holy Thursday) commemorates the Christian belief of the bodily Ascension of Jesus into Heaven. It ...

. The archaeological site of the Roman Ruins of Villa Áulica and Convent of São Cucufate are situated near Vidigueira.

Parishes

Administratively, the municipality is divided into 4 civil parishes (''

freguesias (), usually translated as "parish" or "civil parish", is the third-level administrative subdivision of Portugal, as defined by the 1976 Constitution. It is also the designation for local government jurisdictions in the former Portuguese overs ...

''): * Pedrógão * Selmes * Vidigueira * Vila de Frades

Notable people

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama ( , ; – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and nobleman who was the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India, first European to reach India by sea. Da Gama's first voyage (1497–1499) was the first to link ...

(c.1460s – 1524) the Portuguese navigator, was made

Count of Vidigueira Count of Vidigueira (in Portuguese ''Conde da Vidigueira'') was a Portuguese comital title of nobility awarded by King Manuel I of Portugal to Don (honorific), Dom Vasco da Gama, who discovered the maritime route from Europe to India. The title wa ...

by King

Manuel I Manuel I may refer to: *Manuel I Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos (; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Latinized as Comnenus, also called Porphyrogenitus (; " born in the purple"), was a Byzantine emperor of the 12th century who reigned ov ...

on the return from his discovery of the maritime route from Europe to India *

Achilles Statius Achilles Statius (or Aquiles Estaço) (12 June 1524, Vidigueira – 17 September 1581) was a Portuguese humanist and writer, since 1555 living in Rome, where he was a secretary of the pope. Achilles Statius is now mostly known from his extensi ...

(1524 in Vidigueira – 1581) humanist poet and commentator * Forebears of radical Dutch philosopher

Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...

(1662-1677) lived in Vidigueira since at least the 16th century, before escaping from the

Portuguese Inquisition The Portuguese Inquisition (Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Inquisição Portuguesa''), officially known as the General Council of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Portugal, was formally established in Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal in 15 ...

to the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

. A number of them were employed in service to the counts of Vidigueira.

Israel, Jonathan I. Jonathan Irvine Israel (born 22 January 1946) is a British historian specialising in Dutch history, the Age of Enlightenment, Spinoza's Philosophy and European Jews. Israel was appointed as Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the School of Historical ...

, ''Spinoza, Life & Legacy''. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2023, 82-88

References

External links

Town Hall official website
Towns in Portugal Populated places in Beja District Municipalities of Beja District {{Beja-geo-stub

Parishes

Notable people

See also

References

External links