Da Scallabis romana a Sanctaren medieval: espaço, gentes e lendas

Abstract

When the Romans conquered Lusitania they divided it into conventi iuridici, one of them being conventus scallabitanus, where Scallabis was the name given to the territory which today is the municipality of Santarém. Under Visigoth rule, the worship of a martyr – Iria or Irene – changed the name of the town to Chantirene, a name which the Moors maintained (Xantarin) and when the Charter was given to the municipality in 1179, King Afonso I had the following written: ego Alfonsus (...) per uigili astucia mei et meorum hominum opidum sanctaren sarracenis abstuli. What reasons would have had these peoples to covet this territory? The place of bloody fights that required so much effort from the first Portuguese king, it was only thanks to his cunningness and that of his men that he was able to permanently reconquer this territory. Could it be because of the fields rich in crops and pastures, fertilized by the floods of the Tejo, like the River Nile or because of the legends and mysteries that have led poets and chroniclers, throughout the centuries, to describe this territory as a place of delights?