GEOCACHING POINT
GC2BZJV- Cruzeiro da Amêndoa [Mação]
The Almond Cruise was erected in 1940 to commemorate the 8th centenary of the Independence of Portugal and to celebrate the 3rd centenary of the Restoration of Independence in 1640.
The place serves as a viewpoint over the village and the entire area around it being possible to appreciate the landscape many miles away.
The Romans called this land Amindula, which was located on the edge of the Roman road from Egitania to Abrantes, and in a place called Coutada, some fragments of polychrome "opustelatum", parts of Roman mosaic of geometric decoration and ceramics from the 1st century BC were collected.
After the reconquest to the Moors by D. Afonso Henriques in 1165, Amêndoa was donated to the Templars, to which it belonged until 1174. In 1231, it belonged to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, later Rhodes, to which all the land of Guidintesta had been given by D. Sancho I in 1194, being already a quite autonomous population in 1336 because it had judges, almotacés, and all the proper jurisdiction of a village receiving, even, all the rents and royal rights. In 1372, D. Fernando I donated to D. Afonso Fernandes de Lacerda, among other things, half of the village with all the jurisdictions, which later fell to the Lords of Belas e Senhores and then Counts of Pombeiro.
In 1514, by order of D. Manuel I, it became a commendation of the Order of Christ, and, in 1527, D. João III ordered the first "General Census of the Population". On this date Amêndoa registered 36 fires and 162 inhabitants, and the town would still be the Lordship of the Counts of Abrantes and, by succession, of the Counts of Penaguião and Marqueses de Fontes, after Abrantes.
After six hundred years as a county, in 1836, Amêndoa fell to the category of parish, being integrated in the county of Vila de Rei until 1878, when it became part of the county of Mação.
(Source: Wikipedia)