1755: on All Saints' Day, a violent earthquake, of 9 on the Richter scale (one of the strongest in human history), shook Lisbon, which was then hit by a tsunami caused by the tremors (around 40,000 victims out of Lisbon's 150,000 inhabitants). The Marquis of Pombal, Sebastião José de Carvalho, who was Prime Minister at the time, had the city centre rebuilt and became the promoter of an urban revolution inspired by the French Lumières with the aim of building a model city.
25 April 1974: Carnation Revolution (Revolução dos Cravos) which brought down the dictatorial regime (1933-1974) of General Salazar. The Constitution of the Portuguese Republic came into force on 25 April 1976 (2 years to the day after the Carnation Revolution). It establishes a semi-presidential regime.
🇪🇺 1986: year of Portugal's accession to the European Union, at the same time as Spain. To date, Portugal has 21 Members of the European Parliament.
1998: Universal Exhibition in Lisbon in the Parque das Nações district on the theme of "the oceans, a heritage for the future", which has preserved to this day the gardens, the observation tower, the funicular, the virtual reality pavilion and the Oceanarium (one of the largest in Europe) 🐡 🦈
12,3 km: length of the Vasco de Gama Bridge, inaugurated on the occasion of Expo 98. This bridge, the 2nd largest in Europe after the Crimean Bridge, commemorates the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the navigator Vasco da Gama in India in 1498.
🌉 Lisbon is also famous for its 25th April Bridge. The famous 2,277 metre long red suspension structure was opened to traffic on 6 August 1966 as the Salazar Bridge. It became the 25 April Bridge following the Carnation Revolution. It was built by the same company as the Golden Gate in San Francisco. The lower level of the bridge for train traffic was added in 1999.
2007: legalization of abortion in Portugal after a referendum in which 59.3% of voters said "yes", against 40.7% "no".
2010: Portugal becomes the 6th country in Europe and the 8th country in the world to legally recognize same-sex marriage at national level.
2011: badly affected by the financial crisis, Portugal is forced to ask the International Monetary Fund for help.
January-June 2021: Portugal assumes the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the 4th time since joining the EU.
🗓 Among the most popular bank holidays:
25 April: commemoration of the Carnation Revolution (Revolução dos Cravos) of 1974.
10 June: National Day celebrating the Day of Portugal, Camões (died 1580) and the Portuguese communities.
13 June: Saint Anthony's Day celebrations in Lisbon. To learn more about the "Santos Populares" celebrations, read my dedicated post 🎉
5 October: bank holiday celebrating the proclamation of the Portuguese Republic in 1910.
🇵🇹 The flag of Portugal was created in 1910. The green and red colours symbolise hope and courage in battle. The sphere symbolises the land and the many conquests and explorations of this people of great navigators. The coat of arms with 5 blue shields represents the defeated Moorish kings. The white dots inside symbolise the 5 wounds of Christ. The red border with 7 yellow castles was added to the coat of arms after the annexation of the Algarve (southern Portugal) and the marriage of King Alfonso III to Beatrice of Castile in 1252.
1 December: bank holiday commemorating the Restoration of Independence in 1640.
🌍 A bit of geography:
92.226 km²: size of the country.
Portugal is the 18th largest country in Europe and the 111th largest in the world. More than half of the inhabitants (67%) live in cities.
900 hectares: the extent of the largest forest park in Portugal. 🌳Read my post Discovering Monsanto Forest Park.
1,993 metres: altitude of the Serra da Estrela🏔, a mountain range where the highest point of mainland Portugal (Torre) is located.
10 343 066: number of inhabitants (2021 census) in Portugal. The Lisbon metropolitan area alone has 2.2 million inhabitants. If you want to know more about the main foreign communities living in Portugal in 2022, read my post on the subject.
🤰🏻 1,4: fertility rate in Portugal.
Well below the 2.1 required for generation replacement according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report.
23% of the Portuguese are over 65 years old,
38% are between 0 and 24 years old,
64% are between 15 and 24 years old.
🤷🏽♀️ 85 years: average life expectancy for women in Portugal.
🙆🏻♂️ 80 years: average life expectancy for men in Portugal.
Average life expectancy worldwide reached 72.8 years in 2019 (an increase of almost 9 years since 1990). Source: United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
🗣260 million people speak Portuguese on the 5 continents. The Portuguese language is recognized by UNESCO as one of the main languages of communication, the most spoken in the southern hemisphere and the 5th most used in a digital context.
🗳 About politics:
2015: António Costa becomes Prime Minister (Socialist).
The Prime Minister officially resides at the Palacete de São Bento in Lisbon.
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa (conservative), has been in office since 2016. Elected for a 5-year term, renewable once, the President of Portugal officially resides at the Palacio de Belém in Lisbon.
2026: next legislative elections in Portugal.
💶 Day-to-day data:
760 euros gross/month: the Portuguese minimum wage for 2023 (compared to 705 euros in 2022). The Portuguese government's objective is to reach 900 euros gross/month by 2026.
66 years and 4 months: legal retirement age (in 2023) in Portugal.
🏡🏠 According to the HousingAnywhere International Rental Index data published by the Portuguese newspaper "El Economista", Lisbon is the 3rd most expensive city in Europe to rent a house. In the last quarter of 2022, the average rental price of a flat in the Portuguese capital was 1,910 euros. Amsterdam (2,300 euros) and Reykjavik (2,000 euros) are the only cities more expensive than Lisbon, followed by Milan (1,853 euros) and Munich (1,800 euros).
🚎 1.50 €:price of the metro/bus/tram ticket in Lisbon.
5 €: price of the return ticket for the train journey between Lisbon Cais do Sodré and Cascais (a very pleasant route along the Tagus and the Ocean).
🥇 Nº1: Portugal is the largest producer of bicycles in Europe for the year 2022. The total value of exports 🚲 increased by 37% from €594 million in 2021 to €800 million in 2022.
☎️ +351: telephone code of Portugal.
🕰 GMT+1: time zone 🇵🇹.