Mertola, Portugal

Mértola is a municipality in southeastern Portugal next to the Spanish border. It has a total area of 1,292.87 km² and a total population of 8,712 inhabitants (2001). In terms of land area, it is the sixth-largest municipality in Portugal. The resultant population density of 6.74 persons/km² is the second-lowest in Portugal, behind only that of adjacent Alcoutim. The municipality is composed of 9 parishes and is located in the southeastern part of the District of Beja, in the Lower Alentejo region.During Classical Antiquity, Mértola was inhabited by Phoenicians, Carthaginians and finally the Romans, who called it Myrtilis Iulia. The strategic location of Mértola, on a hill by the Northernmost navigable part of the Guadiana river, was crucial in its early development. Agricultural products grown in the villae nearby and valuable minerals (silver, gold and tin) obtained from the lower Alentejo region were sent from the fluvial port of Mértola via the Guadiana to Southern Hispania and the Mediterranean. The town was raised to the status of a Municipium in times of Emperor Augustus and was connected to important Roman cities (Beja, Évora) through a road system.
During the Migration Period, Mértola was invaded by Germanic tribes of the Sueves and the Visigoths. In this period (5th-8th centuries) commerce was reduced but still active, as evidenced by Greek tombstones from the 6th-7th centuries found in Mértola which suggest the presence of Byzantine merchants in the town.
Around the year 711, Hispania was invaded by the Moors from the Maghreb, inaugurating a period of great influence of Islamic culture in the Alentejo region that would last nearly 500 years. Mértola - then called Martulah - and its port played an important economic role in the commerce of agricultural and mineral goods between the Alentejo and other parts of Al-Andalus (Arab Hispania) and Northern Africa.