Loriga 
Concise note on the history
Loriga is an ancient,beautiful and historic small portuguese town,located in the Serra da Estrela mountains.- Historical center of the town.
Known as Lobriga by the Lusitanians and Lorica by the Romans,it is more 2600 years old.Lorica,was the name given by the Romans the Lobriga,population the was,in the Hermínius(current Serra da Estrela mountains)a strong Lusitanian bastion against the romans invaders.The Hermínius had been the biggest lusitanian fortress and situated Lorica in the heart of this fortress,close to the high point.Lorica,latin it,is name of old warlike harness,from that it derived Loriga,with signification.The Romans had the same put such name to it,due to its strategical position in the mountain range,and to its protagonism during the war with Lusitanians.(LORICA LUSITANORUM CASTRUM EST).This a case rare of a name that if it practically keeps unchanged has two a thousand years,being highly significant of the antiquity and the history of the population(the Lorica is the central piece in the coat of arms).
The population was established strategically in the high one of a hill,between two banks,in an beautiful origin valley glacier,where the presence human being exists has,at least,five a thousand years.Ignore if as it is evident,remote date of the foundation,but it is known that the population exists more than has two thousand and six hundred years,and appeared originally in the same place where today Valley of Loriga is the historical center of the town.No exist currently,beyond the town,the villages of Cabeça,Muro,Casal do Rei,and Vide.
Of the time daily pay Roman exists,for example an antropomorphus sepulture,in a place where one old sanctuary existed,at a time where the name of the population was Lobriga,etymology of evident origin celtic.Lobriga,was an important strenghtened population,Celtic and Lusitanian,in the mountain range.Notable people from Loriga include Viriathus (known as Viriato in portuguese),a famous Lusitanian leader and portuguese national hero.
The local tradition,and diverse old documents,point Loriga as having been cradle of Viriathus,that was born,without a doubt,in the Hermínius,where the existing description in the book was interesting shepherd since child.The manuscript History of the Lusitania,of Bispo-Mor do Reino(1580):"...Succeeded the Viriato shepherd,born in Lobriga,today the small town of Loriga,in the top of a mountain of the mountain range of the Star,Bishopric of the Coimbra,to which,the forty years of age,will acclaim King of the Lusitanians,and married in Évora with a noble lady in year 147...".A main street,of the àrea oldest of the historical center of the town has the name of Viriathus.
Still today parts of the road,and one of the two bridges(century I b.C.),with that the Romans had bound to Lorica to remain empire.A bridge still existing Roman,on the bank of Loriga,it is in good condition of conservation,and is a good unit of the architecture of the time.The road Roman bound to Lorica the Egitânia(Idanha-a-Velha),Talabara(Alpedrinha),Sellium(Tomar),Scallabis(Santarém),Olisipo(Lisbon) and the Longóbriga(Longroiva),Verurium(Viseu),Balatucellum(Bobadela),Conímbriga(Condeixa-a-Velha) and Aeminium(Coimbra).
When the Romans arrived,the population were divided in two separate nucleus for few hundreds of meters.The bigger and main he was placed in the àrea where today the First Church and part of the Street of Viriathus,being defended by walls and palisade.The exist another nucleus,constituted only some habitations,it a small promontory rocky.In local exists the Quarter of S.Ginês (S.Gens).
Loriga,was also important for the Visigods,which had left ermida,probably the older christian temple construted in the locality,dedicated to the S.Gens,a saint of celtic origin,martirize in Arles,the Gália,the time of emperor Diocleciano.A suffered workmanships from alteration and patron was substituted,starting to be Ours Saint Mary Lady of the Carmo.With the ticket of the centuries,the loricenses had started to know the saint for S.Ginês,today name of a quarter of the historical center of the town.A current derivation of the name,Loriga,started to be used for the Visigods.
The first church has,in one of lateral doors,a rock with visigotics registrations,used to advantage when of the construction dated of 1233 and was proper king ( in the time D.Sancho II ) ordered to constrution.A old church,was a romanic temple with three ships,with it traces fellow creature to the one of the old Sé de Coimbra,even so the building had different dimensions,it had the ceiling one and vault painted,and,when it was destroyed by the earthquake of year 1755,was possession pictures of the school of Grão Vasco in the walls.
Since it reconquers christian,who Loriga was under the exclusive real administrative influence and ecclesiastical of Coimbra,include the Vigariaria do Padroado Real.In the second half of century XII already existed the Parish of Loriga,and the faithful of then the small places or "couples"of the outskirts,came to the town to attend the religious services.
The town of Loriga,received municipal charters (Forais) from Rhânia(seigniory João of Lands of Loriga in the time of D.Afonso Henriques)in 1136,D.Afonso III in 1249,D.Afonso V in1474,and received charter new from D.Manuel I in 1514.With D.Afonso III,the town returned to the ownership of the Crown,and in 1474,D.Afonso V donated to Loriga to the Àlvaro Machado noble,axe donation confirmed in 1477,and later for D.Manuel I.But meanwhile,after he death of the related noble,the town was enclosed definitively in the goods of the Crowh.In the century XIII,the municipality of Loriga enclosed the understood area enters the Portela de Loriga (today also known by Portela do Arão) and Pedras Lavradas,including the areas of the actuals clienteles of Alvoco da Serra,Cabeça,Teixeira,and Vide.In the first half of the century XIX,in 1836,the Municipality of Loriga passed to enclosed the populations of the Valezim and Sazes da Beira.Valezim,current historical village.Alvoco da Serra received charter in 1514,and Vide received charter in the century XVII,but the Municipality of Loriga in 1828 had come back to be part do and 1834 respectively,also in beginning century XIX.The seven clienteles who occupy the area of the old Loricense Municipality,currently constitutes the called Region of Loriga and the Associação de Freguesias da Serra da Estrela with head office in Loriga.
Loriga,is a industrial town(textile)since the beginning of century XIX,when "it adhered"to the call industrial revolution,but,on longer century XVI,the loricenses produced bureis and other cloths woollen.Later,the metallurgy,the pastry shop,and more recently,the tourism(Loriga as enormous touristics potentialities),pillars of the economy had started to be part of them of town.In Loriga they are the only ski resort and existing ski trails in Portugal.Loriga is the Luso Capital and capital of the snow in Portugal.
