Marvão () is a municipality in Portalegre District in Portugal. The population in 2020 was 2,972 (and dropping at a rate of around one inhabitant per week), in an area of 154.90 km2. The present Mayor is Luís Vitorino, elected by the Social Democratic Party. The municipal holiday is September 8.
Perched on a quartzite crag of the Serra de São Mamede, Marvão's name is derived from an 8th-century Muwallad rebel, named Ibn Marwan. Ibn Marwan, who constructed the Castle of Marvão - likely on the site of an earlier Roman watchtower - as a power base when establishing an independent statelet ("emirate", duchy) - covering much of modern-day Portugal - during the Emirate of Cordoba (884-931 CE). The castle and walled village were further fortified through the centuries, notably under Sancho II of Portugal (13th century) and Denis of Portugal.
The village has generated significant tourist interest in recent years. It was included in the #1 New York Times bestselling book, "1000 Places to see Before you Die". Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago wrote of the village, "From Marvão one can see the entire land ... It is understandable that from this place, high up in the keep at Marvão Castle, visitors may respectfully murmur, 'How great is the world'."
In the 1950s, author Huldine V. Beamish wrote of Marvão, "There is an atmosphere about the district (of Marvão) that is very ancient. At times you have the same peculiar feelings as those evoked by Stonehenge and that amazing druid monument at Callernish in the Isle of Lewis. Picking your way along the steep stony pathways, you would not be at all surprised to meet a Phoenician trader or Roman Soldier. It would be the most natural thing in the world."
An annual international classical music festival, under the artistic direction of German conductor Christoph Poppen, was launched in Marvão in July 2014. The village also hosts an international film festival, Periferías, in August each year. Other annual festivals in Marvão include 'Al-Mossassa'- a celebration of the town's Moorish past, held jointly with the Spanish city of Badajoz (also founded by Ibn Marwan) - in early October, plus a major Chestnut Festival in early November.
Parishes.
Administratively, the municipality is divided into 4 civil parishes ("freguesias"):
History.
Commanding views across the Tagus basin and Serra de Estrela to the north, the fortified rock of Marvão has been a site of significant strategic importance since the earliest human settlements.
Today, lying on the 'raia' that divides Portugal and Spain, Marvão has consistently stood on a frontier zone between peoples: Celtici, Vettones and Lusitani (4th-2nd century BCE); Lusitanians and the Romans of Hispania Ulterior (2nd-1st century BCE); migratory Suevi, Alans, Vandals and Visigoths (5th-7th century CE); conquering moors and Visigoths (8th century); muwallad rebels and the Cordoban emirate (9th-10th century); Portuguese nation-builders and Moors (12th-13th century); Templars and Hospitallers (12th-14th century); Portuguese and Castilians (12th century-present day); Liberals and Absolutists (19th century); the fascist regimes of Salazar and Franco (20th century).
Marvão's natural assets have contributed to the 'uniqueness' of this remote village as perceived by visitors today: (i) as nigh-impregnable 'eagle's nest' fortress - perched high on a granite crag, and bordered on the south and west by the Sever river; (ii) as vital lookout-point towards the Alcántara Bridge ( away), a wide stretch of the Tagus basin and the Serra de Estrela; (iii) as a gateway to Portugal from Spain via the Porta da Espada ('Sword Gate') mountain pass of the "Serra de São Mamede". 
Prehistory.
The earliest dolmens in southern Portugal date from c. 4800 BCE, and this culture lasted into the Bronze Age (2000 BCE) and beyond into the Iron Age. In and around Marvão, there exists a high concentration of dolmens, rock-hewn tombs, passage mounds and megaliths, dated to the 3rd millennium BCE.
Together with the Sever-valley sites around the nearby towns of Castelo de Vide and Valencia de Alcântara (in Spain), these form one of the densest clusters of megalithic sites in Europe. Among the 200+ neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age monuments within a range of Marvão is the 7.15m high Menhir of Meada (the largest on the Iberian peninsula), oriented to be visible from the northernmost promontory of Marvão's rock (possibly based on an alignment with the lunar calendar).
Other notable sites are the "Coureleiros" complex of dolmens near Castelo de Vide, the Vidais dolmen ("Castelo Velho") of Santo Antonio das Areias and the "Las Lanchas" dolmen complex of Valencia de Alcântara. 
Archaeological finds from this era include substantial grave goods, for example anthropomorphic idol plaques, arrowheads and axes, and jewellery. A database of idol plaques - the Engraved Stone Plaque Registry and Inquiry Tool - lists 16 plaques found in Marvão, 14 in Castelo de Vide, and 28 in Valencia de Alcântara.
It is speculative to comment on the population of Marvão at this time. Many carved tombs and burial chambers dot the granite boulders of the landscape around Marvão, suggesting small-scale farming settlements, and some cultural emphasis on burial rites and the afterlife. Excavations of dolmens (e.g. the "Cavalinhas" dolmen) reveal foetal-position buried skeletons, and grave goods including weaponry (axes, arrowheads), jewellery (necklaces), ceramics and stone idols. Cave art and engravings in the Tagus valley ( north of Marvão: 40,000 items) point to a developed culture based on prehistoric norms of agriculture, hunting and transhumance.
Further, ideograms - notably, repetitions of spirals - point to both abstract ideas, religious observance, and some astronomical knowledge of lunar and solar cycles. Decorative objects - rock crystal arrowheads, floral- and zig-zagged patterned stones ("pedras de raio") and ceramics, deity sculptures - also suggest the development of local systems of craftsmanship, hierarchy, magic and celebration. Recent studies of idol plaques have speculated that they depict some kind of owl deity, with their engravings acting as a means to identify the individual buried by clan, marriage and lineage.
Pre-Roman era: Lusitani and Celtici.
The Iberian peninsula saw migrations of Celtic tribes from central Europe during the 6th–4th century BCE. The site of modern-day Marvão would have stood on the northern periphery of the territory of the "Celtici" tribe, which stretched from the Tagus to Guadiana rivers, and beyond to the Algarve and today's Huelva province in Andalucia. The area falls within the northernmost limits of the "Tartessian" paleohispanic language and culture, centred on Huelva in Spain, in decay throughout this period as Celticisation took place. Tartessians were the creators of the Southwestern script, one of the earliest written languages in Europe. A renowned gold hoard from the Tartessian period, the was discovered in nearby Aliseda (Cáceres province), while a gold bracelet discovered in nearby São Julião (Portalegre) - sold at auction in 2013 - suggests that local tribes were relatively wealthy. The migration of the "Celtici" is considered part of a third or fourth wave of Celts in the 4th century BCE: this migration occurred across modern-day Aragon and into modern-day Extremadura and Alentejo, displacing the proto-Celt Lusitanians who dominated the lands north of the Tagus, and skirting the Vettones lands that stretched from Zamora to Castelo Branco.
So in the three centuries prior to Roman conquest (3rd–1st century BCE), Marvão stood at a junction of the Celtici, Lusitani, and Vettones tribes, and its dominant strategic position offered line-of-sight long into the territories of all three tribes. A locally found head of a pig-like sculpture from the Verraco (Portuguese: berrão) culture of the Vettones is displayed in Marvão's museum.
Given their strategic location, the "Serra de São Mamede" and Spain's "Sierra de San Pedro" – in particular the dominant escarpments of Marvão on the northernmost tip and Alburquerque on the southernmost tip - are likely to have played a role in conflicts between Celtiberians and Romans. While Marvão lies north of the territories of Carthaginian Iberia – which by 218 BCE reached across Southern Iberia up to the river Guadiana, the area is likely to have been crossed during the 230s and 220–218 BCE during Carthaginian slave-raiding and mercenary-recruitment campaigns focused on the Tagus valley (e.g. Hamilcar Barca's Tagus encampment at Cartaxo) and along what later became Ruta de la Plata: Iberian manpower was to play a role in the Punic Wars.
In the 2nd century BCE, Roman might asserted itself following the Punic Wars, yet progress was slow in these border regions. A series of bloody revolts and wars (195–135 BCE) pitted the Lusitanians and Vettones - most notably under the guerrilla fighter and hero Viriatus – against the expansionist Roman colonisers of Hispania Ulterior. While nominally the area was under Roman control from the early 130s BCE, for a century an unstable war zone spread from the Serra de Estrela-Tagus basin (seen from Marvão) and the Extremaduran plains between Alburquerque and the Sierra de Aracena.
Some speculation has focused on whether 'choças', the traditional circular-floorplan barns with broom-thatched roofs – found throughout Marvão, most dating from the post-medieval period - are a vernacular survivor from these Celtic times. The 'choças' of Marvão follow the rudimentary pattern of roundhouses found throughout Celtic settlements in Europe. Similarly, a number of corbelled circular drystone shelters, with a false cupola (Portuguese: "chafurdão) in Marvão reflect similar Iron Age structures across Southern Europe (e.g. the Spanish "bombo" and Croatian "trim") associated with the terracing and clearance of rocky land for farming. The "Vettones" culture was renowned for its cattle-rearing and Verraco (Portuguese: berrão) pig-like sculptures: "porco preto" rearing remains dominant in local agriculture and cuisine.
The Roman era: Ammaia.
After considerable resistance from Lusitanian tribes in the 2nd-1st century BCE, the Romans gained a tentative foothold over the areas south of the Tagus and north of the Sierra Morena during the 130s BCE. While early encampments had been made in Cáceres from 139 BCE ("Castra Servilia") and in Almourol (in the Tagus valley) from 138 BCE, Roman progress was only made in fits and starts. Lusitanian rebellions - notably the Sertorian War (80-72 BCE) - hampered progress, with effective Roman rule being achieved in the area under Julius Caesar's campaigns in 61-60 BCE. Throughout this period, the terrain of the Serra de São Mamede is likely to have served as ideal base for guerrilla warfare, ambushes and smuggling. Lusitania only became a fully-fledged province under Augustus in 27 BCE, with the "pax Romana" heralding five centuries of strong urban development across southwest Iberia.
In Marvão, gradual consolidation of Roman power led to the establishment of a substantial Roman town in the 1st century CE: Ammaia. Occupying up to 25 hectares, and with a population exceeding modern-day Marvão (5000-6000 inhabitants), Ammaia occupied the site of the present-day parish of São Salvador da Aramenha. The town flourished between the 1st century BCE and the collapse of the Roman empire in the 5th century CE.
Ammaia's location on the river Sever was a waypoint on west–east trading routes, linking towns such as "Scallabis" (Santarém), "Eboracum" (Évora), "Olisipo" (Lisbon) and "Miróbriga" (Santiago de Cacém) to the provincial capital Emerita Augusta (present-day Mérida) via Norba Caesarina (Cáceres). The mountain of Marvão would also have served as a watchtower providing line-of-sight to the vitally-important Roman bridge at Alcántara. Local agricultural production (olives, wine, figs, cattle) was supplemented by horse-breeding, pottery, and mining activity - notably rock crystal and quartz from veins on the Marvão mountain, together with open cast gold mining on the Tagus to the north. Roman Ammaia saw the development of improved irrigation and terracing across the Marvão mountain. Chestnut cultivation - replacing the local dominance of oak - is likely to have been introduced at this time. Much of the terracing and ancient watercourses on the Marvão mountain date from this era.
Limited excavations at Ammaia in the past two decades - albeit covering a mere of the town's area - have revealed a successful, expanding provincial town that included running water, a forum, baths, a bridge over the river Sever (near today's 'Ponte Velha'), and monumental gates (one gate was removed to Castelo de Vide in the 18th century, yet sadly dynamited in 1890). The Alto Alentejo region, meanwhile, was criss-crossed with efficient Roman roads, providing wider links to the Empire. Fine wares found at Ammaia suggest that the local Ammaia nobility had access to luxury glassware and jewellery, while archaeology has revealed that marble for the forum was imported from across the Empire. The high quality, for example, of the 'Mosaico das Musas' - from a Roman villa in nearby Monforte (4th century BCE) - points