Camarate

Camarate is a parish in the Loures municipality, Lisbon district, Portugal. Located to the east of Lisbon, it borders Apela??o, Frielas, Prior Velho, Sacav?m and Unhos in the Loures municipality, parts of Odivelas and Lisbon, and the Portela de Sacav?m airport. Camarate has an area of 5.52 sq km and a population of 23,000 as of 2001.

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The patron saint of the Camarate parish is Saint James the Great, to whom the Church of Santiago de Camarate, with its magnificent baroque paintings and altars, is dedicated. The parish was created in 1511 by a royal decree of King Emmanuel I separating it from the parish of Sacav?m. Camarate was elevated to the status of a village by a decree of the Portuguese National Assembly in 1996.

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Camarate was historically a country retreat for the Lisboan nobility. It was well-known for its local wine, produced in the fertile farms that characterized the parish until the mid-twentieth century. Since then, industrialization has transformed it into into an urbanized town.

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Camarate is famous for being the home of 20th century Portuguese poet and pioneer of Portuguese literary modernism M?rio de S? Carneiro. Sadly, it is known for being the site of the accident or possible assassination that took the life of the Portuguese social-democrat Prime-Minister Francisco S? Carneiro and his wife, and also the Christian-Democrat Defense Minister Adelino Amaro da Costa, on December 4, 1980, preceding the presidential elections of the same year.

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Parish: A parish is a type of administrative subdivision. It is used by some Christian churches, and also by the civil government in a number of countries....

Loures: Loures is a municipality (concelho) to the north of Lisbon. Created on 26 July 1886 by a royal decree, it occupies nowadays an area of 168 km? and about 200 000 inhabitants (2001). It confines with the municipalities of Odivelas, Sintra, Mafra, Arruda dos Vinhos, Vila Franca de Xira and Lisbon....

Municipality: A municipality or "general-purpose district" (compare with: "special-purpose district") is an administrative local area generally composed of a clearly defined territory and commonly referring to a city, town, or village government....