Almoçageme is a village on the Portuguese municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 of Sintra

Sintra

Sintra is a town within the municipality of Sintra in the Grande Lisboa subregion of Portugal. Owing to its 19th century Romantic architecture and landscapes, becoming a major tourist centre, visited by many day-trippers who travel from the urbanized suburbs and capital of Lisbon.In addition to...

 and in the Freguesia

Freguesia

Freguesia is the Portuguese term for a secondary local administrative unit in Portugal and some of its former colonies, and a former secondary local administrative unit in Macau, roughly equivalent to an administrative parish. A freguesia is a subdivision of a concelho, the Portuguese synonym term...

 of Colares

Colares (Sintra)

Colares is a civil parish along the coast of the municipality of Sintra. In 2001, it had a resident population of 7472 inhabitants dispersed in an area of 33.37 km².-History:...

.

The name Almoçageme is obviously Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

 in origin – the Iberian peninsula is packed with Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 toponyms

Toponymy

Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...

 that are a legacy of the five hundred years the Moors

Moors

The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...

 stayed over. One possible root is from al-masjid or al-mesijide, meaning “the mosque” – although there are no testimonies of one having been around.

Local festivities honoring Nossa Senhora da Graça take place on the first Sunday of October and last eight days.

There are Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 ruins of a “villa

Villa

A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...

” in this most occidental spot of the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

, dating from the 2nd century AC. These were unearthed in 1905 during the construction of a road (Estrada do Rodizio) linking Almoçageme with the spectacular beach of Praia Grande. Excavations are under way in the roman villa of Santo André de Almoçageme

Roman villa of Santo André de Almoçageme

In Santo André de Almoçageme, Sintra, is located the westernmost villa of the Roman Empire with occupation from the second to the sixth centuries AD....

 and the findings are sent to the Archaeological Museum of São Miguel de Odrinhas

Archaeological Museum of São Miguel de Odrinhas

The Archaeological Museum of São Miguel de Odrinhas gathers together around the hermitage of São Miguel a considerable number of epigraphic stones found amongst the Roman ruins present at the place and surrounding region.-External links:*...

 – a 40-minute drive away.

Almoçageme boasts the cosy beach of Adraga with a vintage fish restaurant right by the sand that is the delight of the visitor.