Finisterra - Revista Portuguesa de Geografia (Jun 2006)
Portugal peninsular e os desafios regionais
Abstract
MAINLAND PORTUGAL AND REGIONAL CHALLENGES. In a land noteworthy human unity and absent of marked physical disruption, the Portuguese regional delimitations that came about during the Middle Ages are clearly chorographic in nature. In terms of its designations, jurisdictions, and then provinces, more keenly reflect a political vision of the country than they do the way in which the people themselves identify with these places. In the 19th century, they rapidly yielded to districts, built upon municipalities that liberals reformed and made viable. Stimulated by the ever-important central authorities, recent attempts at reconstructing the regional map from a chorographic perspective reflect the need to recognise the supra-municipal scale in a process of municipal belonging that will tend to spread. This development is patent in new readings of Mainland Portugal’s regional geography.
