MUGE
39.10547º N; 8.71150º W
It is a Portuguese parish in the municipality of Salvaterra de Magos, with an area of 52.03 km² and 1,270 inhabitants (2011). Population density: 24.4 inhabitants / km².
When talking about Muge, the first thing to remember about this village is related to its very rich archaeological past, namely with the Muge councilors. The archaeological value of this village is not limited to the Mesolithic period. From that time, some shells and human skeletons were discovered in the 1960s. In the vicinity of the Muge stream, paleolithic stations were located at the sites of Arneiro dos Moinhos, Pinhal do Coelheiro. Sobral de Martim Fonço, Arneiro de Boa Vista, Glória, Coelheiro Bridge, João Boieiro, Cacharinho, Porto Sabugueiro, Cabeça de Arruda, Casalinho, Arneiro dos Pescadores, Cabeço da Mina, among others. In these seasons, a material was collected that, among us, is characteristic of the terraces. The pieces are almost exclusively worked in quartzite rolled pebbles, with a high number of bifaces or unifaces.
When talking about Muge, the first thing to remember about this village is related to its very rich archaeological past, namely with the Muge councilors. The archaeological value of this village is not limited to the Mesolithic period. From that time, some shells and human skeletons were discovered in the 1960s. In the vicinity of the Muge stream, paleolithic stations were located at the sites of Arneiro dos Moinhos, Pinhal do Coelheiro. Sobral de Martim Fonço, Arneiro de Boa Vista, Glória, Coelheiro Bridge, João Boieiro, Cacharinho, Porto Sabugueiro, Cabeça de Arruda, Casalinho, Arneiro dos Pescadores, Cabeço da Mina, among others. In these seasons, a material was collected that, among us, is characteristic of the terraces. The pieces are almost exclusively worked in quartzite rolled pebbles, with a high number of bifaces or unifaces.
Other historical periods are very present, as is the case of the Roman period, which made its influence felt, namely in the port of Sabugueiro, where there is a human occupation that goes from the 1st century to. To the fifth century, d. C. Several ceramic fragments of ancient chronology also appeared in the Port of Sabugueiro, allowed to date from the second half of the 1st-century a. C. the beginning of agricultural activities in the parish.
In the century. XV, an event will mark the Vila and the Kingdom in general: it was in Paço de Muge that King D. Manuel in 1496 decreed the edict for the expulsion of Jewish and Muslim minorities.
The Dukes of Cadaval were the Lords of Muge, who built their Palace here. Casa Cadaval was one of the most powerful institutions of the post-restoration period, with a huge percentage of land in Muge. This House gave an agricultural character to the village. His palace, which can still be found in Muge, currently has few vestiges of the old physiognomy, except on the facade, as it has undergone restoration works in this century. Next to the house, the chapel dedicated to Nossa Senhora da Glória, whose image is seen in a register of blue frame tiles on white enamel, from the 19th century.
The great importance that Muge held over the centuries has faded with the approach of the contemporary era.
