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• the Confederation of the Equator was a short-lived state established in northeastern Brazil during her struggle for independence from Portugal?
• the Bassein Fort was at the centre of Portuguese operations in India during the 16th century?
• the Diu Fort (pictured) in India was voted one of seven wonders of Portuguese colonialism in an opinion poll in Portugal?
• the masseira is a form of agriculture in sand dunes practiced solely in Northern Portugal?
• the Monastery of Alcobaça, founded in 1153, includes the first Gothic buildings built in Portugal?
• the Angolan War of Independence lasted from 1961 until 1989, even though Portugal left Angola in 1975?
• the Almond Blossom Cross Country was created by the District of Faro and the Portuguese tourist board to promote sport and tourism in the area?
• the Gothic Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha (pictured) in Coimbra, Portugal, stayed abandoned under mud and water for over 300 years before it was rescued in an archaeological intervention?
• the Monastery of Jesus in Setúbal, Portugal, the first building associated with the Manueline style, was built by Diogo Boitac?
• the Portuguese film Ala-Arriba! features real-life fishermen from Póvoa de Varzim in starring roles?
• the Portuguese village Cacela Velha was once the site of the Medina of Qast’alla Daraj, an Islamic town dating back to the 10th century?
• the Pernambucan Revolt of 1817 was a conflict to establish independence for the current Brazilian state of Pernambuco from Portugal?
• the Portuguese Fireplace war memorial is the remains of a camp where Portuguese labourers helped the Canadian Forestry Corps in felling timber during World War I?
• the tick Ornithodoros erraticus spreads the African swine fever virus in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal)?
• three-time Olympian Albertina Dias was the first Portuguese woman to win at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships?
• under the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration on the Question of Macau, Communist China would guarantee complete autonomy and democratic self-government in Macau up to 2049?
• within the Special Economic Zone SEEPZ, Mumbai lies an abandoned Portuguese church built in 1579?
• the real objective of the 1732 Treaty of Three Black Eagles, where Prussia, Austria and Russia agreed to support the Portuguese Infante Manuel, Count of Ourém in elections to the Polish throne, was to create a rift between France and Prussia?
• the façade of the Igreja de Santo Ildefonso (pictured) in Porto, Portugal, is covered in approximately 11,000 azulejos?
• the Roman Temple of Évora (pictured) in Portugal, was used as a butcher shop for nearly 500 years and thus survived destruction?
• the Siglas Poveiras are a proto-writing system inherited from the Vikings and have been used for more than a thousand years by the fishermen of Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal?
• the briefly popular "I'm Backing Britain" campaign in 1968 suffered embarrassment when a number of t-shirts bearing the slogan were found to be made in Portugal?
• the destruction of over 150 million reis-worth of Nyassa Company stamps was ordered in 1895 by the Portuguese government because the stamps had been printed in England and not Portugal?
• the contemporary artist Walenty Pytel was commissioned to create four 45-meter steel eagles for Portuguese football club Benfica?
• the 1510 conquest of Goa by the Portuguese Governor Albuquerque was accomplished with the help of the Hindus against a Muslim army?
• Portuguese soldier and explorer Francisco Barreto led an expedition to Monomotapa in search of legendary gold mines, but died along the way from tropical diseases, as did many of his men?
• Ulysses S. Grant awarded Bolama to Portugal, who made it the first capital of Portuguese Guinea?
• Arthur Raikes was a British army officer but received honours from Zanzibar, Austria and Portugal?
• Fort Anjediva (pictured) built on Anjadip Island, under the jurisdiction of Goa, India, formerly under Portuguese rule, is in the vicinity of the Church of Our Lady of Springs built in 1505 AD?
• Portuguese architect Mateus Fernandes is best known for his Manueline-style work at the Monastery of Batalha?
• Portuguese Josefa de Óbidos was one of the few women dedicated to painting (pictured: still life by her) in the Baroque era?
• Angola gained its independence from Portugal through the Alvor Agreement?
• Eça de Queirós, one of the greatest writers in the Portuguese language, was born in Praça do Almada, the civic center of Póvoa de Varzim in Portugal?
• Italian explorer Rafael Perestrello, a cousin of Christopher Columbus, sailed on behalf of Portugal and established trading relationships for that country with the Ming Dynasty in China in 1516?
• Portugal was taken to court over its failure to implement EU directives regarding its water supply and sanitation systems?
• Francisco Serrão, one of the Portuguese vessel commanders sent by Afonso de Albuquerque to the 'Spice Islands', took a Javanese woman as his wife when his ship berthed at Gresik?
• Luiz Francisco Rebello was a founder of two of the most important experimental theatrical groups in Portugal in the postwar period?
• in the 1508 Battle of Chaul in India, a Mamluk-Gujarati fleet defeated a Portuguese fleet under Lourenço de Almeida?
• in the Ottoman expedition to Aceh starting in 1565, the Ottoman Empire provided military support to Aceh (modern Indonesia) against the Portuguese?
• in the siege of Cannanore (1507) in India, a Portuguese garrison of 150 resisted for four months against 60,000 attackers?
• in the Siege of Diu in 1538 an Ottoman fleet equipped with 130 cannons attempted to eliminate the Portuguese from the harbour of Diu in India?
• in 1804, the frigate Apollo and forty merchant ships in her convoy were wrecked off Portugal, the result of a single badly adjusted compass?
• following the Liberal Wars, the owner of Fonseca Guimaraens had to flee Portugal in an empty Port wine barrel because of his support of liberal reforms?
• Manuel Pinho was forced to resign as Portugal's Minister of Economy and Innovation after making a gesture towards an opposition member during a session of parliament?
• Michael Annals designed the sets for productions of Macbeth in the Soviet Union and in Portugal?
• Colóquios dos simples e drogas da India was a scientific text published in Goa in 1563 that included the first published verses by Luís de Camões, Portugal's national poet?
• a lost Roman villa was discovered in 1992 when a bulldozer remodeled the sand on a beach at the Rio Alto tourist area (pictured) in Portugal?
• 18th century Franco-Portuguese industrialist Jácome Ratton (pictured) left a vivid account of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake in his memoirs and was exiled to the Azores during the Napoleonic Wars?

More interesting facts on Portugal

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