1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lamego

LAMEGO, a city of northern Portugal, in the district of Vizeu and formerly included in the province of Beira; 6 m. by road S. of the river Douro and 42 m. E. of Oporto. Pop. (1900) 9471. The nearest railway station is Peso da Regoa, on the opposite side of the Douro and on the Barca d’Alva-Oporto railway. Lamego is an ancient and picturesque city, in the midst of a beautiful mountain region. Its principal buildings are the 14th-century Gothic cathedral, Moorish citadel, Roman baths and a church which occupies the site of a mosque, and, though intrinsically commonplace, is celebrated in Portugal as the seat of the legendary cortes of 1143 or 1144 (see Portugal, History). The principal industries are viticulture and the rearing of swine, which furnish the so-called “Lisbon hams.” Lamego was a Moorish frontier fortress of some importance in the 9th and 10th centuries. It was captured in 1057 by Ferdinand I. of Castile and Leon.