Santarem on the Tagus (1)

Introduction

Santarem is a city notorious for its despise for the cultural heritage. The city's population has a long history of an almost implausible despise for the past, the space, the image of the city, and the monuments it accumulated over a period of almost three millennia.

In the mid-19th century historians and intellectuals described the city as an astonishing and disgraceful confusion of rubble, with its monuments in ruins, abandoned, and being demolished and replaced by unplanned and ugly construction:

Almeida Garrett, in Viagens na minha terra, 1846: "Entrámos a porta da antiga cidadela. – Que espantosa e desgraciosa confusão de entulhos, de pedras, de montes de terra e caliça! Não há ruas, não há caminhos: é um labirinto de ruínas feias e torpes."

Ramalho Ortigão, in O Culto da Arte em Portugal, 1896: "…chegue-me a Santarem, descanse e ponha-se-me a ler a chronica: verá se não é outra coisa, verá se deante d'aquellas preciosas relíquias, ainda mutiladas, deformadas como ellas estão por tantos e tam sucessivos bárbaros…"

Almost two centuries later, that reality has not changed much. Modern building with no architectural quality have replaced old buildings in the historic center, and most people view archaeology as a nuisance, a delay, and an obstacle to the city's economical growth.

Most important artistic pieces were sold or taken to Lisbon, and there is no archaeological museum. During Salazar's dictatorship an important number of churches were 'restored' to a gothic image they never had and today are meaningless empty spaces, stripped of the thickness of the interventions that kept them inhabited and functional.

The Project

This project started when a number of mid-19th century working boats were exposed in Lisbon, during the construction of a subterranean parking lot at Campo das Cebolas, in the place where the old Cais de Santarém was located.

The interest of these finds was obvious and we decided to carry out an inquiry into the river transport along and across the Tagus River, including the submerged sites reported by detectorists and collectors, starting in front to Santarem and moving downstream for the time being.

This page is intended as a preliminary report and the result of our inquiries. Santarem is an interesting case study of a fluvial landscape that has often been overlooked. The circumstances of its location, on a protected hill, looking over one of the most fertile plains in western Europe, and on the margins of Portugal's largest river, have made Santarem an important city during the Arab period.

The City

Probably built over several pre-historic settlements, the earliest archaeological remains date to the 8th century BCE and are related to the Phoenician occupation of the Tagus Estuary (Arruda 1986, 1993, 1996, 1999-2000, 2005, 2007, 2015, 2018). It occupies a plateau situated at about 100 m above the sea level, and encompasses a few smaller settlements on the base around the plateau, such as Seserigo, now Ribeira de Santarem, and Alfange, both on the east, the side of the river.

Excavations in the castle revealed a Roman temple and well preserved Roman ruins from the republican period. Romans seem to have arrived in Santarém around 138 BCE, calling it Scalabi Castro. After the conquest of Iberia by Julius Caesar, around 60 BCE, the city or its surroundings was occupied by a stationed army, changing its name to Praesidium Juliia.

During the 5th century the Iberian Peninsula saw a pronounced decadence of the cities, the elites, and the civic activities. Invasions by Alans and Vandals probably impacted the city, which was eventually given to Roman general Sunieric, who conquered it with a Visigothic army (c. 460 CE). Santarém was conquered by the Suevi in 529 CE and later, in the 7th century, by Visigoths. During the period of the Visigothic invasions Scallabis was named Sancta Irene (or Iria).

In 714 it was conquered by a Muslim army. The early city – now known as Shantarîn – may have been located in the alcáçova area, with a small neighborhood to the northeast, outside the walls, named Alcúdia, and another to west of Alcúdia, named Alpram.

When the Christian invasions reached its surroundings, Shantarîn was a prosperous small city, surrounded by orchards, gardens, vegetable gardens, and vineyards. In the late 11th and early 12th centuries this relatively small city was conquered and lost by Christian warlords from Spain, and finally conquered in 1147 by Afonso Henriques, the first king of the newly created kingdom of Portugal.

Today Santarém is a small city of about 30,000 people but it was once a prosperous center. A series of political miscalculations (1824 and 1384), a tragic accident (1491), and three violent earthquakes (1531, 1755, and 1909) kept Santarém from fully developing its political influence.

Cities are in constant evolution. Progress, fires, natural disasters such as earthquakes, war, economic crisis, and urban policies affect the way buildings are kept, abandoned, bought, rebuilt, how traffic flows and how people perceive their habitat and feel about it.

We have divided the city spaces as public and private, secular and religious, loosely following Vitruvius' approach:

• Defensive spaces – Walls, gates, towers, roads, streets, bridges, and water systems
• Public spaces – Civic and commercial centers, courts, administrative buildings, theaters, bullfighting arenas, fair grounds
• Commercial spaces – Markets, shopping centers, shops, the waterfront structures, industrial spaces, workshops
• Private spaces – Houses and neighborhoods
• Religious spaces – Temples, mosques, synagogues, churches, and chapels, monasteries, convents, tombs, and altars