| ||||||
| Capital (and largest city) |
Lisbon | |||||
| Other Cities | Porto | |||||
| Language | Portuguese | |||||
| Religion | Catholicism | |||||
| Demonym | Portuguese | |||||
| Established | 26 July 1139 | |||||
Continental Portugal, also simply known as Portugal, is the part of Portugal which is located in the mainland Iberian Peninsula, in Europe. It shares a land border with Spain to its east and north, and it borders the Atlantic Ocean to its west and south. Portugal has been a unified kingdom since the Middle Ages, and it was from here that, during the Age of Discoveries, Portuguese navigators and settlers would set out to colonize the Azores, Madeira, Brazil and the Portuguese colonies in Africa and Asia.
Continental Portugal is, of course, the administrative, cultural and economic heart of the Portuguese nation. Its geography is characterized by mountains and hills in the north and rolling plains in the south, divided by the country's main river, the Tago, which has its estuary near the Portuguese capital, Lisbon. The economy of continental Portugal depends largely on agriculture in the inland and the highlands, while the areas around the major cities are important industrial centres, especially in regards to naval industry.