Oeiras is a town and a
municipalityIn Portugal, municipality or concelho is the most stable subdivision of Portugal since the foundation of the country. A list of the current municipalities can be found in: list of municipalities of Portugal....
in western
Lisbon Metropolitan AreaLisbon Metropolitan Area is a territorial zone that includes 18 municipalities in Portugal. The smaller Grande Lisboa area is a subregion of the NUTS II Lisbon Region by its own right....
,
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
. It is in
conurbationA conurbation is an urban area or agglomeration comprising a number of cities, large towns and larger urban areas that, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban and industrially developed area...
with
LisbonLisbon is the capital and largest city of Portugal. It is also the seat of the district of Lisbon and the main city of the Lisbon region...
, the parish population is 34,850, and the entire Oeiras Municipality has 168,475 inhabitants. The town (
vila) of Oeiras is one of the most populous towns in Portugal. It is located by the end of the Tagus River (
rio Tejo) mouth, across from
AlmadaAlmada - Arabic: حصن المعدن is a city and a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 70.0 km² and a total population of 164,844 inhabitants...
, in the Greater Lisbon subregion.
The parish dates back to the year 1208, when the area was settled by Christians from the north of
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
.
Oeiras is a town and a
municipalityIn Portugal, municipality or concelho is the most stable subdivision of Portugal since the foundation of the country. A list of the current municipalities can be found in: list of municipalities of Portugal....
in western
Lisbon Metropolitan AreaLisbon Metropolitan Area is a territorial zone that includes 18 municipalities in Portugal. The smaller Grande Lisboa area is a subregion of the NUTS II Lisbon Region by its own right....
,
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
. It is in
conurbationA conurbation is an urban area or agglomeration comprising a number of cities, large towns and larger urban areas that, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban and industrially developed area...
with
LisbonLisbon is the capital and largest city of Portugal. It is also the seat of the district of Lisbon and the main city of the Lisbon region...
, the parish population is 34,850, and the entire Oeiras Municipality has 168,475 inhabitants. The town (
vila) of Oeiras is one of the most populous towns in Portugal. It is located by the end of the Tagus River (
rio Tejo) mouth, across from
AlmadaAlmada - Arabic: حصن المعدن is a city and a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 70.0 km² and a total population of 164,844 inhabitants...
, in the Greater Lisbon subregion.
History and landmarks
The parish dates back to the year 1208, when the area was settled by Christians from the north of
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
. The municipality was founded in 1759 by the
Marquis of PombalCount of Oeiras was a Portuguese title of nobility created by a royal decree, dated from July 15th, 1759, by King Joseph I of Portugal, and granted to Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, Head of the Portuguese Government.Later, through another royal decree dated from September 16th, 1769, the same...
, as a reward granted by king José I to his minister for having reconstructed downtown
LisbonLisbon is the capital and largest city of Portugal. It is also the seat of the district of Lisbon and the main city of the Lisbon region...
after the
1755 Lisbon earthquakeThe 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake, took place on 1 November 1755, at around 9:40 in the morning. The earthquake was followed by a tsunami and fires, which caused near-total destruction of Lisbon in the Kingdom of Portugal, and adjoining areas...
, it was at the county that he built a magnificent manor-house, the Palace of the Counts of Oeiras, which still exhibits grand stone staircases, statues, splendid tiles and beautiful gardens with cascades and an aqueduct with arches. Oeiras was once part of a defensive line of maritime fortresses built along the Lisbon coast between the 16th and 17th centuries, including the Saint Lawrence Fort (known as Bugio, rising on a tiny islet in the middle of the River Tagus) and the São Julião da Barra Fort, both examples of the Renaissance military architecture.
Oeiras offers a range of new attractions and sites of interest, from the Fábrica da Pólvora (a former gunpowder factory from the 16th century which has been recovered for leisure and cultural purposes) to the Poets Park (a vast green space with statues of Portuguese poets and writers) and the Palace of the Royal Estate at Caxias, dating from the 18th century and surrounded by wonderful gardens.
Visitors may also benefit from different leisure and sports facilities, such as the sports complex of Jamor, the Maritime Walk (a seaside promenade to link Algés to the Torre beach, still unfinished) or the modern marina at Oeiras, prepared to welcome sixty ships, besides other parks and gardens.
The historical centres of several towns have also been recovered and display monuments and sites of interest in picturesque and pleasant settings, often including good restaurants, as is the case of
Paço de ArcosPaço de Arcos is a civil parish in Oeiras, Portugal.Its name comes from the Palace of the Arches located at the entrance to the village , where, legend has it, king D. Manuel I of Portugal watched Vasco da Gama's caravels leave for India. Nowadays, the Portuguese maritime academy - Escola Náutica...
.
Economy
It has several industrial and commercial facilities, being also home of
SICSIC - Sociedade Independente de Comunicação is a Portuguese television network and media company, which runs several television channels. Their flagship channel is the eponymous SIC, the third terrestrial television station in Portugal, launched on October 6 1992...
and
TVITVI - Televisão Independente is Portugal's fourth terrestrial television channel, launched in 1993. It is the leader of audiences in its country since 2004. It competes directly with SIC and RTP1.-History:...
, two leading private Portuguese television networks. Many large multinational companies have offices in Oeiras making it one of the wealthiest municipalities in Europe.
NetJets Europe- History :NetJets Europe, also known by its corporate legal name, NetJets Transportes Aéreos, SA, was founded in 1996 as a sister company of NetJets in the United States. In 2002 Mark Booth, the man who brought MTV to Europe and the former CEO of BSkyB, became the company’s Chairman and CEO...
is headquartered there.
NestléNestlé S.A. is a multinational packaged food company founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, and listed on the SWX Swiss Exchange with a turnover of over 87 billion Swiss francs...
,
MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices...
,
CiscoCisco may refer to:Companies:*Cisco Systems, a computer networking company* Certis CISCO, corporatised entity of the former Commercial and Industrial Security Corporation in Singapore* Nissin Cisco Co...
,
General ElectricThe General Electric Company, or GE , is a multinational American technology and services conglomerate incorporated in the State of New York. In 2009, Forbes ranked GE as the world's largest company...
and
NokiaNokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
are other companies that have facilities in the area, among many others.
MIPS TechnologiesMIPS Technologies, Inc. , formerly MIPS Computer Systems, Inc., is most widely known for developing the MIPS architecture and a series of pioneering RISC CPUs. MIPS provides processor architectures and cores for digital consumer, networking, personal entertainment, communications and business...
bought in 2007 the Oeiras-based company
ChipideaChipidea was a Portuguese analog semiconductor IP design center, headquarterd in Oeiras, Greater Lisbon subregion, which had been founded in 1997. In August of 2007 it was bought by the US-based company MIPS Technologies for $147 million in cash plus future performance-based stock payments...
. It is also well known by
TagusparkTaguspark is a science and technology park located in the municipality of Oeiras, Greater Lisbon subregion, Portugal. In an area of approximately 3.6 km², 2 km² of which are occupied by the Park, there are several research and development labs, innovative startups and business incubators in a range...
(a science and technology park), the
Jamor (where the
National StadiumThe Estádio Nacional , also known as Estádio do Jamor, is the Portuguese national football ground. It is located in the Jamor sports complex, in Oeiras, near Lisbon. It was designed by Jacobetty Rosa and the building works started in 1939, with its inauguration happening on 10 June 1944 by the...
is located), and also by the
Instituto Gulbenkian de CiênciaThe Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência was founded and is supported by the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian to carry on biomedical research and education...
(a private research institution). A major
NATOThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
command (
Joint Command LisbonJoint Command Lisbon or JC Lisbon is one of the three main subdivisions of NATO's Allied Command Operations. It is based in Oeiras, near Lisbon, Portugal. The Command is led by a United States Navy Vice Admiral who as of 2004 simultaneously holds the position of Commander United States Sixth Fleet...
) and a maritime academy -
Escola Náutica Infante D. Henrique - are located in the area. The
Estação Agronómica Nacional of the Instituto Nacional dos Recursos Biológicos, located also in Oeiras, is a state-run national centre of
agrarian researchAgricultural science is a broad multidisciplinary field that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. -Agriculture and agricultural science:The two terms are often confused...
.
Business Parks
Oeiras is well known by the sprawling office parks along its territory. These host, in most cases, multinational companies. Here is a list of some of them:
- Arquiparque
- Lagoas Park
- Miraflores Premium
- Neo Park
- Parque Holanda
- Parque Suécia
- Quinta da Fonte
- Taguspark
Taguspark is a science and technology park located in the municipality of Oeiras, Greater Lisbon subregion, Portugal. In an area of approximately 3.6 km², 2 km² of which are occupied by the Park, there are several research and development labs, innovative startups and business incubators in a range...
- Science and Technology Park
- Tagus Space
Tennis
The
Estoril OpenThe Estoril Open is an ATP and WTA clay court tournament held in Jamor, Oeiras, Portugal . The men's tournament was created in 1990 and since its inception, every champion except 2004 champion Juan Ignacio Chela and 2009 champion Albert Montañés has been in the Top 10 of the ATP rankings, including...
, held at the
Estoril Court CentralEstoril Court Central is the main tennis court in Oeiras, Portugal. Built in 2005, it currently holds 7,500 spectators. It annually hosts the Estoril Open in May....
, is a professional
tennisTennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court....
tournament that hosts both an
ATPThe Association of Tennis Professionals or ATP was formed in 1972 to protect the interests of male professional tennis players. Since 1990, the association has organized the principal worldwide tennis tour for men, the ATP Tour, which was renamed in January 2009 and is now known as the ATP World Tour...
(men's) and
WTAThe Women's Tennis Association, formed in 1973, is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. It organizes the WTA Tour, the worldwide professional tennis tour for women, which has for sponsorship reasons been known since 2005 as The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour...
(women's) event. The event is held in Oeiras but is nominally located in the nearby resort of Estoril by the sport's governing bodies. The men's event was first held in 1990, when the ATP took absolute control of the men's tennis tour and revamped it. In 1998, the first women's event was held, as a component of the
ITF women's cicuitThe International Tennis Federation is the governing body of world tennis, made up of 205 national tennis associations.It was established as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by 12 national associations meeting at a conference in Paris, France on 1 March 1913...
; a year later, it was promoted to the main WTA Tour. On the men's side, several players who have won the event have also triumphed at the French Open, including
Sergi BrugueraSergi Bruguera Torner is a retired professional tennis player from Spain. He is best remembered for winning consecutive men's singles titles at the French Open in 1993 and 1994.-Career:...
,
Andrei MedvedevAndriy Medvedev is a retired professional tennis player from Ukraine. Medvedev made a splash on the international tennis scene when, as a 17-year-old, he won titles in Genoa and Stuttgart...
,
Thomas MusterThomas Muster is a retired and former World No. 1 tennis player from Austria. He was one of the world's leading clay court players in the 1990s, and at his peak was known as "The King of Clay." He won the French Open in 1995.-Career:Muster first came to prominence when he reached the final of the...
,
Carlos MoyàCarlos Moya Llompart is a former World No. 1 tennis player from Spain. He was the French Open singles champion in 1998 and was the singles runner-up at the 1997 Australian Open. In 2004, he helped his country win the Davis Cup. He currently resides in Switzerland...
,
Juan Carlos FerreroJuan Carlos Ferrero Donat is a former World No. 1 professional tennis player from Spain. He captured the men's singles title at the 2003 French Open, and in September that year, he became the 21st player to hold the world no. 1 ranking. He was also the runner-up at the 2003 U.S. Open...
, and
Gastón GaudioGastón Norberto Gaudio , nicknamed El Gato , is a professional tennis player from Argentina. His career-high ATP Entry ranking was No. 5 in 2005...
. The list of champions also includes two-time finalist
Àlex CorretjaÀlex Corretja Verdegay is a former professional tennis player from Spain. During his career, he finished runner-up twice at the French Open . He won the ATP Tour World Championships in 1998 and reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 2 in 1999...
,
Australian OpenThe Australian Open is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments held each year. The tournament is held each January at Melbourne Park. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was contested on grass from then up to 1987. Since 1988, the tournament has been held on hard...
champion Novak Đoković,
Tennis Masters CupThe Barclays ATP World Tour Finals is a tennis tournament played at the end of each year, involving the top eight players in the men's tennis world rankings....
winner
David NalbandianDavid Nalbandian is an Argentine professional tennis player of Armenian and Italian descent, who is ranked 20th in the world as of August 19, 2009.-2000–2002:...
, and, most recently, twelve-time Grand Slam champion
Roger FedererRoger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player. As of October 2009, he is ranked world number 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals , having previously held the number one position for a record 237 consecutive weeks...
.
Parishes
Oeiras has 10 civil parishes
- Algés
- Barcarena
- Carnaxide
Carnaxide Parish is located in Oeiras Municipality, Lisbon District, Portugal....
- Caxias
- Cruz Quebrada - Dafundo
- Linda-a-Velha
- Oeiras e São Julião da Barra
Oeiras e São Julião da Barra is a civil parish in Oeiras Municipality, Portugal, corresponding to the town of Oeiras ....
- Paço de Arcos
Paço de Arcos is a civil parish in Oeiras, Portugal.Its name comes from the Palace of the Arches located at the entrance to the village , where, legend has it, king D. Manuel I of Portugal watched Vasco da Gama's caravels leave for India. Nowadays, the Portuguese maritime academy - Escola Náutica...
- Porto Salvo
Porto Salvo is a civil parish in Oeiras, Portugal.Situated to the North of Paço de Arcos and Oeiras, the Porto Salvo parish spans a surface of approximately 7.10 km² and has a population of 13,724 ....
- Queijas