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Holidays Portugal
Villas Portugal, cottages and holiday rentals Portugal
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Portugal info
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Geography
Portugal is located in the far Southwest of Europe with its geographical extent including
the Atlantic Ocean archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores.
Mainland Portugal stretches for 88,889 km2 (218 km in breadth,
561 km in length with 832 km of Atlantic coastline and a 1,215 km long border with Spain).
To be found out in the Atlantic
Ocean between the European and American continents, the Azores archipelago covers 2,355 km2 and is made up of 9 islands -
São Miguel and Santa Maria in the eastern group, Terceira, Graciosa, São Jorge, Pico and Faial in the central group, with
Flores and Corvo in the western group. Mainland Portugal is reached by a 2-hour flight.
The Madeira archipelago is 741
km2 in size and located in the mid-Atlantic around 500 kilometres from the African coast and 1,000 kilometres from Europe,
(an 90-minute flight from Lisbon). It is made up of the islands of Madeira and Porto Santo and the uninhabited islands of
Desertas and Selvagens (that are now Nature Reserves).
Religion
The Portuguese people are mainly Catholic, but the
Portuguese Constitution guarantees religious freedom, which results in the presence in Portugal of various different places
of worship.
Language
Of Latin origin, Portuguese is the third most widely spoken
European language in the world and is mother tongue to about 200 million people.
Countries in which Portuguese is the
official language: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe in Africa, Brazil in South America
and East Timor in Asia.
In Portugal a considerable number of the citizens can communicate easily in English, French and
Spanish.
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