Lisbon is the capital and largest city ofPortugal, with an estimated population of 545,796 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2.Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits with a population of around 2.7 million people, being the11th-most populous urban area in theEuropean Union. About 3 million people live in theLisbon metropolitan area, making it the third largest metropolitan area in theIberian Peninsula, afterMadrid andBarcelona. It represents approximately 27% of the country's population. It is mainlandEurope's westernmost capital city and the only one along the Atlantic coast. Lisbon lies in the western Iberian Peninsula on theAtlantic Ocean and theRiver Tagus. The westernmost portions of its metro area, thePortuguese Riviera, form the westernmost point ofContinental Europe, culminating atCabo da Roca.
- I remember vividly in 1974 being in the mass of people, descending the streets in my native Lisbon, inPortugal, celebrating thedemocratic revolution andfreedom. This same feeling of joy was experienced by the same generation inSpain andGreece. It was felt later inCentral and Eastern Europe and in theBaltic States when they regained theirindependence. Several generations of Europeans have shown again and again that their choice for Europe was also a choice forfreedom. I will never forgetRostropovich playingBach at the fallenWall inBerlin. This image reminds the world that it was the quest for freedom anddemocracy that tore down the old divisions and made possible the reunification of the continent. Joining theEuropean Union was essential for theconsolidation of democracy in our countries. Because it places the person and respect of human dignity at its heart. Because it gives a voice to differences while creating unity. And so, after reunification,Europe was able to breathe with both its lungs, as said byKarol Wojtiła. The European Union has become our common house. The “homeland of our homelands” as described byVaclav Havel.
- Lisbon, that name of being and non-being
With its secret meanders of amazement, insomnia, and tin shacks
And secret glitter of something theatrical
Its conniving smile of intrigue and masks
While the wide ocean dilates west
Lisbon rocking like a great boat
Lisbon cruelly built along its own absence
- BetweenMuhammad’s death and the collapse of theUmayyad caliphate in 750,Arab armies appeared everywhere fromcentral Asia, through theMiddle East andnorth Africa, throughout theVisigothicIberian Peninsula, and even into southern France. They imposed Islamic governments and introduced new ways ofliving,trading,learning,thinking,building, andpraying. The capital of the vast caliphate they established would beDamascus itself, crowned with itsGreat Mosque—one of the masterpieces of medieval architecture anywhere in the world. InJerusalem, theDome of the Rock was built on top of the site of the oldJewish Second Temple—and its gleaming dome became an iconic landmark on that city’s famous skyline. Elsewhere, great new cities likeCairo,Kairouan (Tunisia), andBaghdad grew out of Arab military garrison towns, while other settlements likeMerv (Turkmenistan),Samarkand (Uzbekistan), Lisbon, andCórdoba were renewed as major mercantile and trading cities. The caliphate established by the Arab conquests was more than just a new political federation. It was specifically and explicitly a faith empire—more so than theRoman Empire had ever been, even afterConstantine’s conversion andJustinian’s reforms; even after a promulgation late in Heraclius’s reign that allJews inByzantium were to be forcibly converted toChristianity. Within this caliphate, an oldlanguage—Arabic—and a new religion—Islam—were central to the identity of the conquerors and, as time went on, became ever more central to the lives of the conquered. The creation of a globaldar al-Islam (abode, or house of Islam) in the seventh and eighth centuries A.D. would have profound consequences for the rest of theMiddle Ages, and indeed for the world today. With the exception ofSpain andPortugal (and, later,Sicily), almost every major territory that was captured by early medieval Islamic armies retained, and still retains today, an Islamic identity and culture. The spirit ofscientificinvention and intellectual inquiry that thrived in some of the larger and more cosmopolitan Islamic cities would come to play a key role in theRenaissance of the later Middle Ages.
- Dan Jones,Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages (2021).
Encyclopedic article onLisbon on Wikipedia
