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The specific historical and geographical
context of Portugal
When we speak of Portugal, we have to under-
stand its cultural specificity as the product of the
crossroads between a complex historical legacy
and the geographical context of the Iberian
Peninsula. This creates the dialogue between
the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, as the ge-
ographer Orlando Ribeiro reminded us. It is a
genuine continent in miniature, marked by the
contrast between the highlands and lowlands,
between the coastal areas and the interior, be-
tween the cities and the country. “Sierra and
riverside, countryside and hillside, mountain
and valley, highland and lowland: in the minds
of the people who created and use these desig-
nations, they express the contrast determined
by elevation and the resulting particularities of
the climate, of the economy and of the popula-
tion.” From the Douro and the Minho to the
plains of the south and the Algarve, taking in
the northern interior, formed by cold lands and
warm lands, there is a little of everything in this
“garden by the sea” or, as Camões famously
put it, “where the land ends and the sea be-
gins.” Or, in another more contemporary ex-
pression, “That beach enraptured and bare /
Where I become one with the sea, the wind and
the moon” (Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen).
It was from here that the Portuguese set sail
for the Atlantic islands, for the coast of Africa, for
the Americas and the Indies.
Miguel de Unamuno once said, “For Portugal,
the sun never rises: it dies always in the sea that
was the theatre of its deeds and the cradle and
tomb of its glories… Portugal seems to be the
home of sad loves and great shipwrecks”. In
fact, it may be said that, thanks to the will of the
Portuguese people, our long Western coastline
has been responsible for our independence since
the 12
th
century and for our having the oldest
border in Europe, since the 13
th
century.
The character and idiosyncrasy of the
Portuguese people
As well as a varied physical space, the Portuguese
cultural place is formed by a melting pot built up
over the centuries thanks to multiple influences,
from the peoples who came from Central Europe
and those who came from the Mediterranean to
our own internal migrations.
The language is one of them and if Fernando
Pessoa, through his heteronym Bernardo Soares,
Portugal, culture
and development
Guilherme d’Oliveira Martins