Aljezur

Aljezur is a municipality in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 5,884, in an area of 323.50 km². The municipality comprises 4 parishes, and is located within the district of Faro. The word is derived from the Arabic word "Aljuzur" (الجزر), the plural of island.HistoryAljezur is a land that has remote origins, and marked by various archeological remnants. Its territory has been inhabited since prehistory. Vestiges from remote pre-history generally attest to the age of the region (as late as 7000 BCE). Nomadic tribes of hunter-gathers, hunted or fished in the region, in addition to scavenging in the lands for tubers or roots, that constituted their basic diet. It was during the Neolithic and Calcolithic (3000-2500 BCE) and Bronze Age (1200-800 NCE) that settlement began to take root. But, the period of Muslim occupation (during the 10th-11th century) resulted in the largest expansion of architectonic construction, resulting from archaeological excavations in the Castle of Aljezur, Ponta da Atalaia (Ribat da Arrifana), Ponta do Castelo (Carrapateira) or in Alcaria.Politically, Aljezur was founded in the 10th century by Berbers who remained in the region for the following five centuries, until the Christian conquest. They were responsible for many of the structures in the region, such as the main castle, but also for the many names that dotted the region's toponymy, as well as the legends and myths that developed by its peoples.The village of Aljezur was taken from the Moors in 1249, during the reign of D. Afonso III, by Paio Peres Correia, Master of the Order of Santiago. The Christians gave thanks for their success to the Virign Mary, and in an expansion of faith, Nossa Senhora da Alva (Our Lady of the Dawn) was named patron saint of Aljezur, as a result of the mythical legend of the Conquest of the Castle.