Beja, the ancient Pax Iulia
Home to the diocese and district that bear the same name and capital of Baixo Alentejo, Beja is one of the oldest towns in the South of Portugal. Inhabited since the Final Bronze Era, it later became the very important Roman city of Pax Iulia, home to a broad conuentus, further on occupied by Suevi and Visigoths. The Arabs overran them in 715, renaming it Baju or Baja. During the Reconquest it was repeatedly taken, lost and recovered. The hero of the last taking of the city was Gonçalo Mendes da Maia, the Lidador. King Afonso V created the dukedom of  Beja, which – between the reigns of Manuel I and Pedro IV – was given to the kings´second sons.