Sertã
Municipality in Oeste e Vale do Tejo, Portugal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sertã (Portuguese pronunciation: [sɨɾˈtɐ̃] ⓘ), officially Town of Sertã (Portuguese: Vila da Sertã), is a municipality in Castelo Branco District in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 15,880,[1] in an area of 446.73 km2.[2]
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Sertã | |
|---|---|
| Town of Sertã | |
| |
 Flag  Coat of arms | |
 Interactive map of Sertã | |
| Coordinates: 39.80°N 8.10°W | |
| Country |  Portugal |
| Region | Oeste e Vale do Tejo |
| Intermunic. comm. | Médio Tejo |
| District | Castelo Branco |
| Parishes | 10 |
| Government | |
| • President | Carlos Miranda (PS) |
| Area | |
• Total | 446.73 km2 (172.48 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 250 m (820 ft) |
| Population (2011) | |
• Total | 15,880 |
| • Density | 35.55/km2 (92.07/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+00:00 (WET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+01:00 (WEST) |
| Postal code | 6100 |
| Area code | (+351) 274 |
| Local holiday | Birthday of Nuno Álvares Pereira, 24 June |
| Website | Official website (in Portuguese) |
The present mayor is Carlos Miranda, elected by the PS. The municipal holiday is the June 24.
| Population of Sertã (1801 – 2011) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1801 | 1849 | 1900 | 1930 | 1960 | 1981 | 1991 | 2001 | 2011 |
| 10235 | 13456 | 20380 | 24057 | 27997 | 21503 | 18199 | 16720 | 15880 |
Etymology
The town's name literally means "frying pan", but is near-certainly a phono-semantic matching of a pre-Roman toponym. This hasn't stopped the creation of all manner of folk etymological legends seeking to explain name of the town, the most famous of which is the so-called "Legend of Celinda", supposedly a Lusitanian woman who had been frying eggs while the settlement was under attack by Quintus Sertorius' forces and, upon learning of her husband's death, poured boiling hot cooking oil on the besiegers. This story has lent the town its name Sartago Sternit Sartagine Hostes (lit. 'Sertã scatters its enemies with a sertã').
General information
Local sports club: Sertanense Futebol Clube (mainly devoted to soccer, playing (2004-2005) the 3rd Division Championship).
Local newspaper: A Comarca da Sertã (weekly)
Parishes
Administratively, the municipality is divided into 10 civil parishes (freguesias):[3]
Parish name Population (2011)[1] Area km2[2] Cabeçudo 957 10.39 Carvalhal 465 10.02 Castelo 1,046 24.57 Cernache do Bonjardim, Nesperal e Palhais 3,625 101.58 Cumeada e Marmeleiro 731 51.73 Ermida e Figueiredo 423 42.74 Pedrógão Pequeno 753 36.86 Sertã 6,196 80.95 Troviscal 864 53.37 Várzea dos Cavaleiros 820 34.51
Notable people
- Nuno Álvares Pereira (born 1360 in Cernache de Bonjardim - 1431) a Portuguese general, he became a mystic and was beatified by Pope Benedict XV, in 1918, and canonised by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009
- João Castel-Branco Goulão (born 1954 in Cernache do Bonjardim) a physician and the current national drug coordinator for Portugal
