Friday 11 December 2020

ERICEIRA (PORTUGAL)


ERICEIRA
N 38º 57' 46''; W 9º 24' 55''

Ericeira is a seaside resort/fishing community on the western coast of Portugal, in the municipality of Mafra, about 35 kilometers (22 mi) northwest of the capital, Lisbon. The population in 2011 was 10,260, in an area of 12.05 km². Ericeira is regarded by some as being Europe's Surf Mecca, due to the exceptional coastline conditions for the practice of Surf. It is home to Ericeira's World Surfing Reserve, the first in Europe and the second in the world.
Ericeira was a popular summer retreat for many of Lisbon's families in the 1940s and 1950s. Today, it is a popular destination for local and visiting tourists, as well as surfers from around the world (owing to the forty beaches with good conditions in the area).
During the Second World War, the region became a refuge for several foreign communities, including pockets of Poles, Germans, French, Belgians, and Dutch expatriates fleeing Nazi persecution in their homelands.
Ericeira is more famously known for the day that King Manuel II of Portugal went into exile, from the Praia dos Pescadores, after the outbreak of the 5 October 1910 revolution. It was about 3:00 in the afternoon of 5 October 1910, when the 20-year-old monarch, accompanied by Queen Amélie of Orleans and Queen Mother Maria Pia, arrived from Mafra. Arriving by car, escaping from the recent Republican revolution in Lisbon, the king was bound for the royal yacht D. Amélia offshore.