Distrito de Santarém

Santarém District - Ribatejo


The Distrito de Santarém (Santarém District) is a central district of Portugal, the district capital is the city of Santarém. It covers about the same area as Ribatejo, which was abandoned in the 1970s, so locals sometimes still use this old name. The district is mainly agricultural with the richest soils of the country. It is famous for raising the horses and bulls used in the Portuguese version of bullfighting.

The western part of Santarém is very rich on caves. It is actually the same karst area as in Leiria, as geologic borders are not connected with political borders.

Probably the most famous cave is the Algar do Pena. It was named after Joaquim Pena who discovered it in 1985 when he was extracting stone in a quarry. It has the largest chamber known in Portugal so far, which is 125,000 m³ in volume.