A compact people-oriented and inexpensive city of about 600,000 situated about a third of the way up Portugal’s coast, Lisbon has been its capital and most important seaport since 1147. Its history goes back before the Romans, and it has been occupied by a succession of conquerors, most notably the Moors, until it became the capital of the new independent nation. Eventually controlling an empire that stretched around the globe, Lisbon was once one of Europe’s most glittering capitals, but times changed. Until Portugal emerged in 1986 from a stultifying dictatorship to become a free democratic member of the European Community, much of the glitter faded away. Nevertheless it has always been a "classy" city, valuing its artistic and cultural heritage, with more than thirty museums and cultural centres, many world-class, and some quite unique. Lisbon
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