Time for refreshment on a hot summer morning ... ripe juicy oranges ready to be pressed into cooling drinks displayed in Praça de Santa Maria, the paved main square of the showpiece medieval walled town of Óbidos, Centro, Portugal.
Óbidos, Centro, Portugal: a refreshing sight on a hot June morning ... barrels of ripe oranges ready to be pressed into cooling pure orange juice in Praça de Santa Maria, the paved main square of this showpiece medieval walled town. In the background, the sculpted stonework of the 15th century Pillory, the column where criminals were punished and a symbol of the town's autonomy, rises above and behind a Late Renaissance or Mannerist drinking fountain commissioned in 1575 by Queen Catherine of Austria, wife of Portugal’s King Joao III. The fountain features two gargoyle-shaped spouts, a deep basin and the Queen’s coat of arms. It was supplied with clean drinking water by an aqueduct commissioned by Queen Catherine in 1573. The name Óbidos derives from the Latin “oppidum”, meaning “walled city”. It was founded much earlier, during the Celtic period in Portugal, and it only became a Roman possession in the 1st century AD, when it was called Eburobrittium. The Romans were followed by the Visigoths and other Germanic tribes in the 5th century. The Moors took over in the 8th century before Portugal’s first king, Alphonso Henriques, conquered the town in 1149. Óbidos is known as the “wedding present town” because it was a gift King Dinis gave to Queen Isabel on their wedding day in 1282. Óbidos then became the property of Portuguese queens until the 1800s.
Size: 4912px × 7360px
Location: Óbidos, Centro, Portugal
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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