The history of Sacavém is the history of a town that, due to its strategic location —at the crossroads of the roads leading to Lisbon from the north and east— has been present in almost all the key dates of Portuguese history. Sacavém is a freguesia belonging to the municipality of Loures, very close to the municipality of Lisbon, crossed by the Trancão river and bordered to the south by the Mar da Palha.
It is a very ancient population, existing in Roman times a bridge that survived, at least, until the 16th century (according to Francisco de Holanda). From the time of the Moorish occupation remained, apparently, the toponym of Arab origin (شقبان, Šaqabān); immediately after the siege and subsequent conquest of Lisbon by the Christians in 1147, it seems that a battle took place in this locality (the Battle of the River Sacavém), although today it is considered legendary.
During the Middle Ages, Sacavém was a royal manor, whose beneficiaries were the admiral Manuel Pessanha, the queen Dª Leonor Teles and later the constable Nuno Álvares Pereira. After the latter's death, the property passed to the House of Bragança, under whose rule it would remain until the Revolution of October 5, 1910 and the proclamation of the Portuguese Republic.
Severely damaged by the earthquake of 1755, Sacavém began a slow decline that lasted for about a century, until 1850, when its industrialisation began —with the creation of the famous Sacavém tile factory, which spread the name of the city throughout the country and abroad— as well as the construction of the railroad. This situation contributed to a population increase until the mid-1970s, which also favored the development of several associations and sports clubs.
At the end of the 80's, the parish obtained its current geographical configuration, with the separation of Portela de Sacavém and Prior Velho. On June 4, 1997, Sacavém finally saw all its potential value recognized, being elevated to the category of town. Months later, the Vasco da Gama Bridge was inaugurated, connecting the city to Montijo, becoming a landmark in the city's urban landscape.
Prehistory, Roman and Germanic rule
Neolithic / Copper Age Human presence in the Sacavém region has been proven for several centuries. About this, Pinho Leal wrote in his monumental work Portugal Antigo e Moderno (Ancient and Modern Portugal):"Sacavém is undoubtedly a very ancient population, and already existed in Roman times."Cf. LEAL, Pinho, Portugal Antigo e Moderno: Diccionário Geográphico, Estatístico, Chorográphico, Heráldico, Archeológico, Histórico, Biográphico & Etymológico de Todas as Cidades, Villas e Freguesias de Portugal e Grande Número de Aldeias. Facsímile da edição de Lisboa, Livraria Editora de Mattos Moreira, 1873–1890, vol. 8, Lisboa, Cota d'Armas, 1990, p. 310.In fact, it seems to have been occupied already in prehistoric times (during the Neolithic period and, most probably, during the Copper Age, from when there seem to date three polished stone axes); there is news of the existence of a cave under the Largo do Terreirinho, next to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Health, which, when excavated during the 1980s revealed the existence of prehistoric vestiges.See Archeological sites, by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture
Roman occupation
At the end of the 3rd century B.C., the Romans arrived in the Iberian Peninsula. OLISSIPO (the ancient name of Lisbon), allied with the Roman legions, was quickly absorbed by the Empire, and rewarded with the attribution of the status of MVNICIPIVM (that is, full citizenship, being for that reason exempt from the payment of taxes to which other territories conquered by force of arms were subjected) and the name of FELICITAS IVLIA (in honor of Julius Caesar).
Administratively, the municipality was integrated in the CONVENTVS SCALLABITANVS. The latter was part of the province of HISPANIA VLTERIOR and, from 27 B.C. (by the division decreed by Augustus), of the LVSITANIA, with capital in AVGVSTA EMERITA (corresponding to the current Mérida, in Extremadura, Spain).
This MVNICIPIVM covered an extensive rural territory, covering a distance of approximately 50 kilometers around the urban area (which was destined to its self-sufficiency), so logically the place where the present Sacavém stands was integrated in it.
About Sacavém in particular, it can only be stated with certainty that in the 1st century a common section of two Roman roads passed through it:
VIA XV, which linked OLISSIPO with the provincial capital of AVGVSTA EMERITA, passing through the city of SCALLABICASTRVM, the modern Santarém, at the time capital of the CONVENTVS SCALLABITANVS; VIA XVI, which linked OLISSIPO with BRACARA AVGVSTA, capital of the CONVENTVS BRACARENSIS, in the province of GALLÆCIA, corresponding to modern Braga.
Even today there are still traces of this road network under the pavement of the streets António Ricardo Rodrigues and José Luís de Morais (which later would constitute the fundamental factor that led to the urbanization of the town, linking Sacavém de Cima and Sacavém de Baixo).See: http://viasromanas.planetaclix.pt/
The importance of Sacavém and its river can already be appreciated at this time; in fact, the Romans would have built a bridge over the Trancão River, which would still exist in the 17th century, according to several stories —especially those of Francisco de Holanda (who alludes to it in his work Da Fábrica que Falece à Cidade de Lisboa, of 1571, in which he points out the need of the king —at the time D. Sebastian— to proceed with the reconstruction of the bridge, making a sketch of it in which it is represented by 15 arches, so historians assume that the flow of the river was greater in antiquityCf. HOLANDA, Francisco de, Da Fábrica que Falece à Cidade de Lisboa, introduction and notes by José da Felicidade Alves, Lisboa, Livros Horizonte, 1984, pp. 26–28 (Capítulo 7.º — Das Pontes e Calçadas Públicas de Lisboa).) and Miguel Leitão de Andrada (in the "2nd Dialogue" of his Miscelânea, dated 1629). This bridge (currently the central element of the town's coat of arms) was the natural continuation of the route followed by the aforementioned roads, linking Sacavém to the north bank of its river.
If it is admitted that the famous Itinerary of Antoninus was based on routes taken by Antoninus Pius, and considering the fact that the aforementioned roads are mentioned in the work, it is natural that the emperor would have passed through the town and its bridge over the Trancão.
There are reports that in Sacavém there was a stone inscription (whose whereabouts are currently unknown) that read as follows:SILVIVS
MAG • I • TER
F • DAR • MAG
P • E • LIIII • P • VA plausible translation of this supposed inscription, which was probably found on a monument, has not been possible.See: http://www4.crb.ucp.pt/biblioteca/Mathesis/Mat12/Mathesis12_27.pdf
Alans and Visigoths The Romans were followed by the occupation of the barbarian peoples, during their migrations towards the west: first the Alans settled (occupying the entire southwest of the peninsula for five years, leaving no trace of their presence in the area), and then the Visigoths (who would have built a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Pleasures in the current Sacavém, on whose ruins the current Church of Our Lady of Victory is built).Cf. LEAL, Pinho, op. cit., p. 313.
Muslim domination
Conquest and cohabitation From 711, a new era in the history of the Iberian Peninsula began, the Muslim occupation. Lisbon (al-Ušbuna) was taken in 716 by Berber forces under the orders of Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa ibn Nusayr (who at the time was governor of Andalus on behalf of the Caliph of Damascus, being the son of the governor of the province of Ifriquia, Musa ibn Nusayr), falling during the same year the populations that integrated the term of Lisbon (among which is Sacavém), as well as other nearby locations such as aš-Šantara (Sintra).
As happened in the other regions of the Ġarb al- ndalus (the "West of Ándalus", a region that roughly corresponds to the ancient Roman Lusitania and therefore included most of modern Portugal), a significant number of Hispano-Romans and Visigoths in the region of al-Ušbuna, although they had become Arabized (becoming bilingual in Arabic —the new language of the administration— and in medieval Vulgar Latin, maintaining as a language of worship), they did not Islamize (or did so late) and maintained their Christian faith; among them would be some inhabitants of the Sacavém area who, according to tradition, were able to maintain their worship in the Church of Our Lady of the Pleasures, in exchange for the payment of the jizya, thus becoming Mozarabs, that is, Christians living under Moorish rule and their highest authority being the Mozarabic bishop of Lisbon — something that was possible due to the religious tolerance that was preached in Classical Islam for the so-called "People of the Book" (Ahl al-Kitab), that is, Jews and Christians.
It is believed that the medieval tower of Sacavém de Cima, located in Largo do Terreirinho, in front of the Chapel of Our Lady of Health, in the historic center of the town, has Muslim origins and it would be there where, according to tradition, the Christians paid the yizia to the Moorish authorities. Although restoration work was carried out during the Middle Ages, it is currently in a semi-ruinous state.Cf. LEAL, Pinho, op. cit., p. 311
Sacavém in al-Andalus According to the description of a Muslim source (the Syrian geographer Abu Abdallah Yaqut ibn-Abdallah al-Rumi al-Hamawi), Sacavém was "one of the towns of Lisbon, to the east of it", being the locality classified as a qarya (word that can be translated, precisely, as al-qarīa, small village, town, village).See: http://www.fcsh.unl.pt/iem/medievalista/MEDIEVALISTA1/medievalista-andalus.htm
Like several other small towns around Lisbon, Sacavém was administratively integrated into the Kura of al-Ušbuna (the kura being a Muslim territorial administrative unit, which basically coincides with the same geographical delimitation of the ancient Roman CONVENTI, encompassing several localities although with differences in the powers attributed), leading it was a qadi, a governor with military functions appointed, first by the wali of Cordoba, the capital of al-Andalus, as representative of the caliph of Damascus, and later by the emirs (756-929) and then by the Umayyad caliphs (929-1031) who ruled al-Andalus from that city.
Throughout the Emirate and Caliphate domination, several seditions against the Umayyads took place in Ġarb al- ndalus (where it was included, as previously explained, Sacavém), highlighting the revolt promoted by the Banu Marwan of Mérida/Badajoz or that of Umar ibn Hafsun, of Bobastro, put down in the late 920s (in fact, during the second half of the 9th century and until January 929, date in which 'Abd al-Raḥman III proclaims himself Amir al-Mu'minin (Prince of the Believers), that is, Caliph —precisely after defeating the Banu Marwan—, passing into a period of greater weakness of the central power, the Gharb was only nominally part of the Umayyad emirate, having become a sort of autonomous principality with headquarters in Batalyaws, that is, Badajoz).
Some time later, during the final upheavals that led to the fall of the caliphate in 1031, and subsequently to the formation of the taifa kingdoms, Sacavém ended up being integrated into the kingdom of Badajoz (except for a small temporary lapse in the 1020s when there was a taifa based in Lisbon under 'Abd al-Aziz ibn Sabur and Abd al-Malik ibn Sabur, sons of Sabur al-Khatib, a former servant of Slavic origin, who served the caliph al-Hakam II and who launched the revolt call of the Ġarb al-Andalus against the caliphate in 1009, ruling the taifa of Badajoz until he was deposed by the Banu'l-Aftas), after which he returned sovereignty to the Aftasid king of Badajoz.