A summer girl - Odivelas, Portugal

The origin of the name Odivelas is caught up in a peculiar legend that developed from the reign of King Denis. In the legend, King Denis had a habit of travelling late at night to the area of Odivelas, to have liaisons with women. On one of these nights, the Queen (Elizabeth of Portugal) waited for her wandering husband, and confronted him about the nightly trips, asking him: "Ides vê-las senhor...?" (Going to see them, sir?)

The phrase was, therefore, corrupted into Odivelas, or "where the King went to see them [the ladies]". 

 

Porto Antonat vintage illustration from 1946 - Lisbon, Portugal

Port wine or simply port, is a Portuguese fortified wine produced in the Douro Valley of northern Portugal. It is typically a sweet red wine, often served with dessert, although it also comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties.

EUROPA stamp 2019 - "National birds" (The Azores)

 

#65 GF - Santiago de Litém, Portugal

Portugal is the largest producer of cork in the world (over 50% of the world supply). Western Europe is home to some of the most lush cork oak forests in the world. It is estimated that they constitute 34% of the world's area of this type of forest complexes.

 

#44 FOTW - Porto, Portugal

The national flag of the Portuguese Republic is a rectangular bicolour with a field divided into green on the hoist and red on the fly. The lesser version of the national coat of arms of Portugal (armillary sphere and Portuguese shield) is centred over the colour boundary at equal distance from the upper and lower edges. 

The conjugation of the new field colour, especially the use of green, was not traditional in the Portuguese national flag's composition and represented a radical republican-inspired change that broke the bond with the former monarchical flag. Since a failed republican insurrection on 31 January 1891, red and green had been established as the colours of the Portuguese Republican Party and its associated movements, whose political prominence kept growing until it reached a culmination period following the Republican revolution of 5 October 1910. In the ensuing decades, these colours were popularly propagandised, green represented the hope of the nation and the colour red represented the blood of those who died defending it, this happened to endow them with a more patriotic and dignified, therefore less political, sentiment.

 

Faro - Estoi, Portugal

Estoi is a village and parish in the municipality of Faro, a rural zone that extends from the fertile fields of Campina de Faro until the peaks of Serra do Monte Figo. 

The Palace of Estoi is a rococo building renowned for its gardens and azulejos (blue and white tiled ceramic). The palace was built in the late 19th century.

Azulejos - Portugal

Azulejo is a form of Portuguese and Spanish painted tin-glazed ceramic tilework.
Azulejos are found on the interior and exterior of churches, palaces, ordinary houses, schools, and nowadays, restaurants, bars, and even railways or subway stations.