Montemor-o-Velho

Montemor-o-Velho (), officially the Town of Montemor-o-Velho (), is a town and municipality of the Coimbra District, in Portugal. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 26,171, in an area of 228.96 km².

==History== In 711, the Arab occupation of the Iberian Peninsula began. Montemor-o-Velho, a fluvial-maritime port of great importance at the time, was the target of conquests and reconquests throughout the 9th to the 12th centuries: in 848 the first Christian reconquest of Montemor was made by king Ramiro I of León, who gave the castle to abbot João, who resisted in the same year the siege made by the caliph of Córdoba Abd al-Rahman II. In 878 Afonso III the Great occupied Coimbra and proceeded to repopulate the Mondego line; on December 2, 990 there was another onslaught of Arabs led by Almançor, who take the castle of Montemor-o-Velho, and its government is given to Froila Gonçalves, a descendant of the Portucalense count Gonçalo Moniz. This was dislodged during the reign of Alfonso V of León, by Mendo Luz, who recovered it for the Christians, later passing it on to Gonçalo Vieigas.