Municipality of Sabugal

Sabugal is a Portuguese town belonging to the District of Guarda, in the Beira Alta province, in the Center region and in the Beira Interior Norte sub-region, with around 1.943 inhabitants.
It's the largest Village of a municipality with 822,70 km ² of area and 12 544 inhabitants, subdivided in 30 parishes. The municipality is bordered on the north by the municipality of Almeida, on the east by Spain, on the south by Penamacor, on the southwest by the Fundão, on the west by Belmonte and on the northwest by the Guarda. It is located in Terras de Riba-Côa, as well as Pinhel, Almeida, Mêda and Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo.
Sabugal is a beautiful city of the Portuguese Beirã region, located in the central region of the country, in a mountainous area, bathed by the beautiful Côa River, since early stage of several conflicts and battles, surrounded by several medieval defensive fortifications.
This is a region that denotes quite remote human occupation, showing signs of prehistoric occupation from the Neolithic period, and also the Bronze Age and Iron Age remains abundant.
The town of Sabugal itself occupies a natural spur where probably there was a castro in the Bronze Age, later occupied in the Roman period.
Sabugal is integrated in the beautiful Nature Reserve of Serra da Malcata, where several vegetal and animal species are protected, well known for one of the last shelters of the Iberian lynx.
The castle of Sabugal is the most interesting heritage of the city, which also has other places of interest, such as the Church of Mercy, the beautiful Pelourinho, a beautiful and renovated green space, the Garden of Poldras, with various attractions for children, the Garden of Largo da Fonte, or the Gardens of Ponte de Açude with pleasant views over the castle and the Côa river, not forgetting the space of the Municipal Museum dedicated to archeology and ethnology and the lovely river beach.
In the region belonging to the municipality of Sabugal there are also several historical villages that deserve a visit, such as Sortelha, demonstrating the historical, natural and cultural richness of this territory, signs of times gone by that have been duly maintained until today.
Nowadays, the Municipal Council of Sabugal is the autonomous body of this municipality and it is up to you to promote the development of the municipality in all areas of life, such as health, education, social action and housing, environment and basic sanitation, land planning and urban planning, transport and communications, public supply, sport and culture, consumer protection and civil protection.

OUR MISSION: Define and execute policies in order to defend the interests and meet the needs of the local population.
The guiding objectives proposed at European and national level lead to the regional formulation of a set of identity and differentiating pillars:

A Qualified, Innovative and Entrepreneurial Region: based on the consolidation of a real ecosystem that promotes Quality, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and which believes in the capacity to build a Center Region with a high technological content, focusing on a network focused on the economic valuation of regional cohesion, social cohesion and the vectors promoting the quality of life of the population and institutional capacity-building, introducing binding mechanisms of commitment to partnerships between regional, subregional and regional actors. local, public and private, consolidating and qualifying its articulated intervention potential.

Competitiveness and Internationalization: based on reinforcement of skills, rationalization of processes and increase of productivity, and betting on the consolidation of alternative, regional-based mechanisms to support the financing and capitalization of companies, in the implementation of incentive systems specifically geared towards the MSMEs cohesion territories in the promotion of qualified and competitive entrepreneurial spaces, and, a sensitive issue for the Municipality, in empowering the diaspora to attract FDI, placing it at the service of internationalization.

Sustainability: Combat and prevent forest fires, protecting biodiversity from border territories; municipal actions for efficiency and energy savings; creation of a permanent video surveillance system to prevent fires, taking advantage of infrastructures; targeted support to avoid abandonment of agro-pastoral activity in areas with natural handicaps and areas integrated in the Natura 2000 network.

Inclusion: Actions to support and encourage the development of community outreach services for the elderly, the disabled and temporary incapacitated persons.

Economically sustainable municipality, based on a set of fundamental pillars:
Modern and competitive rural value chain, focusing on an agricultural sector combining the forest, the agricultural and silvo-pastoral sectors, the production of endogenous products (chestnut, honey, mushrooms, herbs and medicinal herbs, ...), aquaculture, hunting and sport fishing activities and energy valorisation of biomass, also boosting processes for certification of traditional products and developing an agroindustrial animal processing sector.
In this context, initiatives in the field of rural tourism for artisanal products, creative industries and activities related to information and communication technologies, which involve low initial investment and allow for revenue to be initiated at the beginning of the business, may be successful in the market.