Place talk:Portugal

Portugal places [25 October 2008]

Like Scotland and probably most places, the organization of place names in Portugal has changed over the years due to political and demographic reasons. When I began working on Portuguese places the data base consisted of primarily a list of places of unidentified types grouped by districts. Most did not have coordinates listed.

Prior to 1936 when the Salazar regime came to power Portugal consisted of traditional provinces. It is difficult to determine how many there were or what the boundaries were. Some were referred to as lower, upper and central and such subdivisions. Perhaps they never held status as government entities having evolved from Duchys and such feudal divisions. Yet, if you ask someone of Portuguese descent where their family was from they will invariably say which province, The Algarve, The Minho, Tras-os-Montes, Alentejo, etc.

In 1936, Portugal was divided into administrative districts 18 for Mainland Portugal, one for Madeira and 3 for the Azores. Usually the were named for the principal city or town contained. After the death of Salazar and the Carnation Revolution of 1975, these districts were abandoned, the Azores and Madeira were each granted status as autonomous regions. Government is structured with a National or regional central government with local government at the level of concelho or county with an elected mayor and council from within. Council members represent individual villages and or are elected at large. Communities with representatives can be villages or parishes. I have been using the Portuguese word freguesia for villages and parish when a city or town contains separate entities based upon the church boundaries.

Mainland Portugal is made up of 18 districts, subdivided into more than 200 concelhos and some 4200 Freguesias and parishes. I have been working my way through, finding and entering geographic coordinates and renaming each to include the concelho to which it belongs. As I go I am adding the traditional province in the "Also located in" field. In 2 or 3 months I have been able to complete about half of the country. Afterwards I intend to go back and add links for Wikipedia articles, web pages published by Portuguese agencies and other items of interest.

My procedure is as follows: Using Wikipedia I find the list of concelhos within a district and then the list of parishes (Freguesias) in each concelho. Editing each place page to identify the type place, Traditional Province, District, Concelho, City, Town, Freguesia or Parish. Then using Geoname I look up the place for coordinates which I add to the page and then rename the page (if necessary).

Problems are encountered when: The place name cannot be found in the WeRelate database, then a new page must be created. The place cannot be found in Geoname, checking the concelho map or a general google search may turn it up. Geoname contains multiple entries for a given name, then it is necessary to study the maps to determine which is the one in question.--Scot 15:12, 25 October 2008 (EDT)