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Portugal: Hispanic Reading Room Country Guide

This guide provides curated Library of Congress resources for the study of Portugal, including digitized primary source materials in a wide variety of formats, books and periodicals, online databases, and tips for searching.

Introduction

Fado singer in Portuguese night club.
Toni Frissell, photographer. Fado singer in Portuguese night club. 1946. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The Library of Congress holds thousands of collection materials about and from Portugal. Curated by librarians in the Hispanic Reading Room, this guide is part of a series of Country Guides that provide quick references for countries and regions from the Luso-Hispanic world. The Hispanic Reading Room is the Library’s portal to the Caribbean, Latin America, Spain and Portugal; the indigenous cultures of those areas; and peoples throughout the world historically influenced by Luso-Hispanic heritage, including Latinos in the U.S. This guide offers links to diverse resources on Portugal from across the Library, including digitized primary sources, selected books and periodicals, online databases, and tips for searching. For specific questions or assistance using the Library’s resources, use the Ask a Librarian service to contact a reference librarian.

Portugal: Quick Facts

Portugal. 1982. United States. Central Intelligence Agency. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division.

Official name: Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa)

Capitol: Lisbon (Lisboa)

Date of Independence: 1143 (Kingdom of Portugal recognized); 1 December 1640 (independence reestablished following 60-years of Spanish rule); 5 October 1910 (republic proclaimed)

President: Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

Population: 10,355,493 (est July 2018)

Languages: Portuguese

Administrative districts: Distrito de Lisboa, Distrito de Beja, Distrito de Braga, Distrito de Bragança, Distrito de castelo Branco, Distrito de Coimbra, Distrito de Évora, Distrito de Faro, Distrito da Guarda, Distrito de Leira, Distrito de Lisboa, Distrito de Portoalegre, Distrito do Porto, Distrito de Santarém, Distrito de Setúbal, Distrito de Viana do Castelo, Distrito de Vila Real, Distrito de Viseu.