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Concept
Mafra, Portugal
Summary
Mafra (ˈmafɾɐ) is a city and a municipality in the district of Lisbon, on the west coast of Portugal, and part of the urban agglomeration of the Greater Lisbon subregion. The population in 2011 was 76,685, in an area of 291.66 km2.
It is mostly known for the sumptuous Mafra National Palace inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built in the baroque style, the Mafra National Palace also inspired Portuguese Nobel Prize laureate José Saramago to write his novel Baltasar and Blimunda (Memorial do Convento). Other points of interest around the municipality include the Tapada Nacional de Mafra, an enclosed wildlife and game reserve, and Ericeira's World Surf Reserve, the second in the world.
The earliest archaeological remnants discovered in Mafra date to an early settlement of this region in the Neolithic period. In Seixosa, civil parish of Encarnação, in an area that was once a beach, there were archaeological remnants from the Paleolithic period, that indicate one of the oldest human presences in Europe. Similar human vestiges were discovered along the beach of São Julião, including specifically shell mounds produced by Mesolithic communities in the parish of Carvoeira. Although many of these remnants have been discovered submerged along the coast, they have been dated to 7000 B.C. During the Neolithic (5000 B.C.), the first agro-pastoral communities began to appear, remaining in small groups in strategically defensible locations. This includes sites in Igreja Nova, such as Penedo do Lexim (considered an important point in comprehending the Neolithic and Copper Age Iberian settlements) and occupied during the final part of the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. Other structures from the Neolithic, today missing, such as the castle of Cheleiros or dolmens, whose name remains the only proof there is existence, such as Antas-Azueira and Antas-Gradil. In addition to the Penedo do Lexim, also in the Serra do Socorro and Tituaria, as funerary tombs from the Chalcolithic.
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