History

Menhirs and dolmens testify to a human presence at the end of the Neolithic and beginning of the Chalcolithic (approximately 4000 BC), in the context of the megalithic culture that covered the whole of what is now Portugal. It was the deposits of copper, iron and manganese however that attracted men from about 2500 BC until the time of the Roman occupation and a number of mines were established. The ores dug from them were smelted locally, then shipped down the Guadiana river to the Mediterranean and from there to the four corners of the Empire. Human occupation continued under the rule first of the Visigoths and then the Moors (5th-13th centuries), often on the same sites, giving rise, after the Christian reconquest, to some of the settlements still to be found in Alcoutim municipality. Alcoutim's origins are presumably linked to the fact that it is situated at the place where the Guadiana becomes tidal. The vessels that plied the trade in metals and other wares were obliged to wait at this spot for hours, until conditions allowed there to sail down the river. Consequently there was a need for structures to support and defend them. Conquered during the reign of King Sancho II, in 1240, the town of Alcoutim was not repopulated until that of King Dinis, who granted it a charter in 1304 and, in view of its strategic position in relation to the neighbouring kingdom of Castile, granted it to the Military Order of Sant'Iago (St. James). At the time of the wars between Portugal and Castile in the 14th century, a peace treaty between kings Fernando I and Henrique was signed in the middle of the river, opposite Alcoutim. There followed centuries of peace, interrupted only by the War of the Restoration (1640-1668) and, in the first half of the 19th century, by the struggle between liberals and defenders of the absolutist monarchy, when the fearless guerrilla leader Remexido hid with his forces in the hills of Alcoutim and the surrounding region. The decline of the mining industry, the difficulty of raising crops on the area's poor soils, the town's distance, from the coast and the Guadiana river's diminishing importance as a transport route all led to a lengthy period of economic stagnation for Alcoutim and its municipality that has only gradually been reversed in recent decades.