Description Benavente

Benavente is a Portuguese village in the district of Santarém, with about 11,500 inhabitants.

It is the seat of a municipality with an area of ??521.38 km² and 29,019 inhabitants (2011), subdivided into 4 parishes. The municipality is limited to the north by the municipality of Azambuja, to the northeast by Salvaterra de Magos, to the east by Coruche, to the southeast by the secondary area (exclave) of Montijo, to the south by Palmela and Alcochete, to the southwest by the Tagus Estuary (wetland officially assigned to the municipality of Alcochete) and to the northwest by Vila Franca de Xira.

The village has a pleasant and friendly aspect, and in its urban fabric there are considerable old and modern residences and wooded parks. Next to the old wharf, in the toponymy and in the structure of the old buildings, traces of a river navigation can still be seen, prior to the hydraulic works that substantially transformed the region. In the square of the Municipality, opposite the Paços do Concelho, a graceful 16th-century pillory, the Pillory of Benavente. Wikipedia

The settlement of Benavente had its origin in a group of foreign settlers who settled on the south bank of the Tagus in the 19th century. XIII, according to a plan outlined by King D. Sancho I to populate these lands, which, after the expulsion of the Moors, were practically deserted.

This peaceful location is surrounded by Ribatejo lezíria, a vast and extremely fertile plain, where brave horses and bulls are bred, essential in the most important show in the region, which is bullfighting.

Next to Benavente, the Tagus Estuary Nature Reserve, maintains the original charm of the region, in a preserved environment that is sought annually by migratory birds.