Viver num espaço de fronteira. O território e o povoamento no Alto Côa

Abstract

The spatial framework of this dissertation encloses in the sub-region designated Alto Côa, in the portuguese "Inner Beira", which consists in a major part of Sabugal's municipality. One of the main points on which this dissertation focuses was the understanding of the factors behind the organization/planning of the settlements, by following the contemporaneity structures of land, and by investigating/researching and analysing the signs and patterns rulled since the protohistoric period to the 16th century. In this sense, the results of fields investigations and knowledges shows the following allignment: In the Prolegomena, the purposed discourse relies on the identification of the characteristics of the landscape - counting on the most important geographic footprints and the climate - as well as economic conditions that define the reasonableness of each place. Therefore, the tendency of evolution which the settlements in general emanate has an origin in proto-historic and roman civilization times, whose knowledge enable us to develop a consolidated and implicitated discourse, by introducing the dialogical systems that can be related with the subsequent events that took part of the integration of this region in the portuguese realm. In the first part, we took the archaeological traces into consideration, especially those related with roman presence in the region, due to their relevance as long lasting social and cultural legacy. Some archaeological sites and trace elements prove a strong connection between the landscape configuration nowadays and the previous and more antique forms of settlements. In part II, a critical eye fell on settlement and social organization practices of the Medieval Period, normally defined by a subsistence economic policy and defense strategies logic, established by royal charter. In fact, one of the aspects which binds medieval population to the site of precedent occupancy is the persistent capability of settlers chose places from a defensive perspective. The Part III, following an anthropological perspective and a concrete perception of the landscapes were included and appreciated the types of economical organization, markedly rural, and in some cases of low productivity, the existing social structures, taking the most obvious features of urbanism and social relations into account, and, finally, the cultural marks of this region of Portugal in the border with Spain. Moreover, the considerations about the rural space try to explain its formation, specifically how it connects in some situations with the urban structures, how it proceeds from empiricism - as recognized in the ability to solve living in adverse contexts - and from the systematization of the rural and urban parceling based on modulation and geometry principles. The final part of the dissertation adopts a future perspective, by suggesting some ways of revitalization of the urban structures in fast process of desertification, based on the requalification of natural and urban spaces, as well as the promotion of the areas of evident polyvalence and historic relevance and of the aspects of ethnofolklore and architectural tradition that, over the ages, were assumed as an expression of the identity of the communities which remained in the area.