| Mértola | |||
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| — Municipality — | |||
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| Location in Portugal | |||
| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | Portugal | ||
| Region | Alentejo | ||
| Subregion | Baixo Alentejo | ||
| District/A.R. | Beja | ||
| Government | |||
| • Mayor | Jorge Rosa (PS) | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 1,292.87 km2 (499.2 sq mi) | ||
| Population | |||
| • Total | 8,712 | ||
| • Density | 6.7/km2 (17.5/sq mi) | ||
| Parishes (no.) | 9 | ||
| Municipal holiday | Saint John June 24 |
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| Website | Official website | ||
Mértola (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈmɛɾtulɐ]) is a municipality in southeastern Portugal next to the Spanish border. It has a total area of 1,292.87 km² and a total population of 8,712 inhabitants (2001). In terms of land area, it is the sixth-largest municipality in Portugal. The resultant population density of 6.74 persons/km² is the second-lowest in Portugal, behind only that of adjacent Alcoutim. The municipality is composed of 9 parishes and is located in the southeastern part of the District of Beja, in the Lower Alentejo region.
The seat of the municipality is the town of Mértola, which has around 3100 inhabitants. The town of Mértola is located on a hill by the Guadiana river, and its strategic location made it an important fluvial commercial port from Classical Antiquity through the period of Islamic domination. Among the vestiges of its past, Mértola boasts the only mediaeval mosque to have survived in Portugal.
The present Mayor is Jorge Rosa, elected by the Socialist Party.
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During Classical Antiquity, Mértola was inhabited by Phoenicians, Carthaginians and finally the Romans, who called it Myrtilis Iulia. The strategic location of Mértola, on a hill by the Northernmost navigable part of the Guadiana river, was crucial in its early development. Agricultural products grown in the villae nearby and valuable minerals (silver, gold and tin) obtained from the lower Alentejo region were sent from the fluvial port of Mértola via the Guadiana to Southern Hispania and the Mediterranean. The town was raised to the status of a Municipium in times of Emperor Augustus and was connected to important Roman cities (Beja, Évora) through a road system.
During the Migration Period, Mértola was invaded by Germanic tribes of the Sueves and the Visigoths. In this period (5th-8th centuries) commerce was reduced but still active, as evidenced by Greek tombstones from the 6th-7th centuries found in Mértola which suggest the presence of Byzantine merchants in the town.
Around the year 711, Hispania was invaded by the Moors from the Maghreb, inaugurating a period of great influence of Islamic culture in the Alentejo region that would last nearly 500 years. Mértola - then called Martulah - and its port played an important economic role in the commerce of agricultural and mineral goods between the Alentejo and other parts of Al-Andalus (Arab Hispania) and Northern Africa.
Mértola had a wall dating from Roman times, but the Muslims built new fortifications and, eventually, a castle to protect it from rival Muslim and Christian states. After the fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba, in 1031, Mértola became an independent taifa state, until it was conquered by the taifa of Seville in 1044-1045. Between 1144 and 1150 the town was again seat of an independent state led by Ibn Qasi, a mystic and skilled military leader who unified Southern Portugal and fought the power of the Almoravides. The independence of the region, however, was soon ended by an invading Almohad army. The most important remnant from the Islamic period of Mértola is its mosque, built in the second half of the 12th century and later turned into a church, but which still preserves many of its original characteristics.
In 1238, in the context of the Reconquista, the town was conquered by Portuguese King Sancho II, putting an end on centuries of Islamic domination in the Mértola region. The town was donated to the Knights of the Order of Santiago, a Military Order that played a vital role in the Christian conquest of Southern Portugal. The seat of the Order was established in Mértola until 1316. From the Reconquista time date most of the castle, including its mighty keep, and a letter of feudal rights (foral), granted in 1254.
With the ties with Northern Africa severed, the economic importance of Mértola and the Guadiana faded after the Reconquista. In the 15th-16th centuries, when the Portuguese conquered several cities in the Maghreb, Mértola experienced a brief revival in its economic relevance, supplying Portuguese troops in Northern Africa with cereals. King Manuel I granted a new foral to the town in 1512.
After a long period of economic stagnation, the discovery of copper in the S. Domingos mines led to a new wave of development that would end abruptly in 1965, when the mine was exhausted. In the next decades, the municipality lost much of its population, who emigrated to richer parts of Portugal and other European countries. Starting in the 1980s, a series of archaeological surveys brought to light various remnants of past periods of Mértola, and the town became an important cultural touristic site.
| Population of Mértola (1801 – 2004) | ||||||||
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| 1801 | 1849 | 1900 | 1930 | 1960 | 1981 | 1991 | 2001 | 2004 |
| 9617 | 10757 | 18910 | 26310 | 26026 | 11693 | 9805 | 8712 | 7996 |
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