Description: Alcacer do Sal was conquered by many different peoples. Before the Roman occupation it was called Eviom and had trade with the Mediterranean countries. The Romans called it Salatia Urbs Imperatoria, bearing the coin stamp and with the same rights as the cities of Antigo Lacio.
Alcacer also was capital city of the Visigothic municipality, it was dominated by the Arabs at the end of the 8th century and then became one of the most important trade cities in the peninsula. It was conquered by the Vikings at the end of the 10th century.
D. Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal, tried to conquer it in 1158, but it only became a Portuguese village in 1217 with King Afonso II. King Manuel I married Princess D. Maria (the Spanish Catholic King`s daughter), in Alcácer do Sal in 1500. By this time, the castle built by the Arabs had no military purpose any longer, and so became a Carmelita de Aracelli convent during the 16th century.
This Pousada is set in its thousand year old castle overlooking the valley where cork, rice and pine-nuts are produced.
|
