To Visit Portugal: Visit Castelo Branco

Sunday, May 26, 2019

Visit Castelo Branco

Castelo Branco is a Portuguese city, capital of the district and, located in the statistical region of the Center, in the sub-region of Beira Baixa, with about 34,000 inhabitants in its urban perimeter.

It is home to the third largest Portuguese municipality, with 1 438.19 km² of area and 56 109 inhabitants, subdivided into 25 parishes. The municipality is bordered to the north by the municipality of Fundão, to the east by Idanha-a-Nova, to the south by Spain, to the southwest by Vila Velha de Ródão and to the west by Proença-a-Nova and Oleiros.

Unlike other cities in the region, which grew notably due to the textile industry, Castelo Branco has always had a geostrategic and political importance in Portugal. It is not, therefore, subject to the economic fluctuations that have displaced textile companies - especially manual labor disqualified - as happened in the northern region and Cova da Beira. The predominant sociological composition is therefore also very different from other cities of the working class culture.

Castelo Branco will have had its origin in the place of a pre-Roman castro. At the beginning of the 12th century there was a village at the top of the Cardina Hill, on whose slope the settlement of the village developed.

The city was initially built at the top and on the adjacent slope of Monte da Cardosa, but grew up and nowadays rises mainly in the adjacent flat areas. Yet the city lies 384 meters above sea level and the castle at 490 meters. At the opposite extreme rises the Monte de São Martinho, a quartzite formation that constitutes an important archaeological center. The soil is mostly of the granite type, of which example is a rocky outcrop known as barrocal south of the city.

At the hydrographic level there are two rivers that pass very close to the city, the Ponsul River to the east and the Rio Ocreza to the west that, in turn, originates the Ribeira da Líria. The area occupied by the municipality of Castelo Branco is an integral part of the river basin of the Tagus River that runs to the south forming a natural border with Spain. Both the Ponsul River and the Ocreza River are tributaries of the Tagus River and, as such, flow into it.

Climate

The climate in the municipality of Castelo Branco is temperate Mediterranean influenced by the continentality so it shows little humidity throughout the year. The location of the city, in a transitional zone between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, gives it many of the climatological properties that it presents. The average air temperature is around 15.5 ° C, reaching its minimum in January (with minimum average temperatures around 1 ° C) and an average of 7.9 ° C. At its peak in July (where the average temperature is around 25 ° C).

Precipitation is more abundant from October to January with snowfall and precipitation of showers with values above 100mm. On the other hand, in July and August, the rainfall is residual being these the driest months that the city crosses annually. In winter in January, Castelo Branco has minimum temperatures of -4 ° C, but there are records of -7 ° C sometimes with occurrence of snowfall (average of 8 cm). In this last month of January (2012) there was no snowfall due to higher than normal temperatures. In November 1954, Castelo Branco was hit by a Tornado category F3. On October 25, 2012, Castelo Branco was again hit by a Tornado, this time weaker, approximately F1 / F2 and as a consequence of this phenomenon, 5 industrial buildings and 32 cars were damaged, one of them "flew" and was projected into a ravine.

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