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As it commands the highway down the Tagus valley to Lisbon, occupying the crest of a hill covered with olive woods, gardens and vines. The fortified town of Abrantes has usually been regarded as an important military position.
It is believed that the city was originally established during the Celtic period as an Iberian settlement, about 300 B.C., although the name Abrantes comes from the Latin Aurantes perhaps owing to the alluvial gold (aurum) found along the Tagus. Roman mosaics, coins, the remains of an aqueduct, and other antiquities have been discovered in the neighborhood.
Since 1172 (in the reign of Alfonso I), Abrantes was the Spanish military Order of Saint
James of Compostela's first commandery in Portugal, where it soon became a distinct order, which Pope Nicholas IV in 1290 released from the jurisdiction of the Spanish grand master in Uclés.
Abrantes was captured on the 24th of November 1807 by the French under General Junot, for which achievement it was created by Napoleon I a victory title of ducal rank in chief of Abrantès for Jean-Andoche Junot in 1808 (hereditary, extinguished in 1859, but then extended in female line 1869, finally also extinguished in 1985). By the Convention of Cintra (22 August 1808) the town was restored to the British and Portuguese.
Abrantes was made a city in 14 June 1916, which is celebrated every year on this same day.
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