Obidos

Introduction

Óbidos was founded by the Celtic in 308 BC, and was successively conquered by the Romans, the Visigoths and the Arabs. It was taken to the Arabs in 1148 by the first king, D. Afonso Henriques, and later, became one of the five castles, organized by the Templar to defend the center of the kingdom. King Dinis offered Óbidos to his wife D. Isabel, the village becoming part of the “Casa das Rainhas”, only extinct in 1834. During that time, several queens used it adding great benefits. D. Catarina orders to build the aqueduct and fountains, D. Leonor founded the Misericórdia (living there till death). Also death in Óbidos was Josefa de Ayala Figueira, a famous painter from the 17th century, born in Seville, but better known as Josefa de Óbidos, leaving many works in the village chosen to live and to die. Lisbon’s earthquake in 1755 severely damaged the village, destroying parts of the wall, as well as some temples and buildings, altered some aspects of the layout and the Arab and medieval hulls. In 1910 the walls were rebuilt, and started the careful recovering that drove Óbidos back to its authentic look, with sensibility and good taste.

Sleep

Upscale

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Keep Connected

Internet

Wifi is common in many places in Portugal, including hotels, restaurants and coffee bars. Free wifi along the Algarve coast is available in many places. Internet cafés can still be found in most larger cities and tourist areas though.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

Portugal's international telephone code is 351. The general emergency number is 112.

There are three mobile telephone operators in Portugal: TMN, NOS and Vodafone.

Each provider offers a variety of prepaid (Pré-Pagos) and contract (pós-pagos) SIM cards, both of which are available to foreigners. It generally means much lower rates for calls and especially internet. Be sure to switch off data roaming if you don't buy a local SIM card, as prices for internet are very high.

Post

CTT is the national postal service of Portugal. It has relatively fast and reliable services and it takes several days to over a week for your post to arrive within other European countries, more so if you send post to North America or Australia. Post offices (correios) have varying opening hours, but in general post offices are open on weekdays from 08:30am-6:00pm and on Saturday mornings until 12:30. More information about offices, costs and other details can be found at the CTT website. It's a relatively efficient but also relatively slow postal service. If you want to send packages overseas, you'd better use international companies like FedEx, DHL, TNT or UPS, as they are competitively priced, fast and very reliable.

External Links