Lisbon metropolitan area
The Lisbon metropolitan area, centered in the Portuguese capital city of Lisbon, is the largest population concentration in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 2,821,876, of whom 547,733 (19.4%) live in the city of Lisbon. About 26.7% of the total population of Portugal lives in the Lisbon metropolitan area. The area of the Lisbon metropolitan area is 3,015.24 km, which is 3.3% of the total area of Portugal.
History of Lisbon
Portugal was brought low during the final years of the reign of Philip III, as the Spanish officials often flagrantly violated the conditions granted by Philip I, which were the original contract and unalterable constitution of Portugal while it was subject to the monarchs of Castile. Lisbon, the once great cosmopolitan city, was reduced to the rank of a provincial city with no influence among the higher Spanish nobility who governed from Madrid, their conservative and fundamentalist Catholic capital. Lisbon lost much of its population and its importance to the world economy as its mercantile activity shrank. With economic decline, unemployment and crime increased greatly, adding to the misery of the common people. The Spanish authorities were obliged to introduce a kind of auxiliary police force, the "Quadrilheiros", whose members patrolled the streets to control street crime, fights, sorcery and gaming.