PINHAL LITORAL - Geography and history
The Pinhal Litoral has an area of 1741 km2 and comprises five municipalities: Leiria, Batalha, Marinha Grande, Pombal and Porto de Mós. To the north it is bounded by the Baixo Mondego, to its south by Oeste and the Alentejo region, to the east by part of the Pinhal Interior Norte and Medio Tejo, and to the west by the Atlantic Ocean.
It is not a particularly hilly region, and has no major heights, although there are a few outcrops of rocky limestone in the northern municipality of Pombal, and again in Porto de Mós in the south of the region. The Pinhal Litoral has many of Portugal's most famous caves (although the privilege is shared with other regions), including those of Santo António, Mira de Aire, Alvados and Moeda. These are splendid limestone formations with watercourses and spacious chambers underground, and countless stalactites and stalagmites, the product of both time and nature.
The main river of the region is the Lis, which rises in the Serra d'Aire and joins the Atlantic at Praia de Vieira (municipality of Marinha Grande), with as its main tributary the Lena. The region has a coast of level beach, although it is as yet little developed for tourism. Woodlands dominate the land usage, with Mediterranean pine the principal species, notably in the celebrated pinhal de Leiria - the Leiria pine forest in Marinha Grande municipality, a strip of coastal pine forest extending over up to 8.4 km east-west and 18.7 km north-south.
Good connections
Geographically, the Pinhal Litoral is strategically situated: it is the second region of the Centro closest to Lisboa; secondly the region is crossed by the main north-south motorway linking Lisboa and Porto. For railways there is the main north-south line with a station at Pombal, and the west coast line from Lisboa to Figueira da Foz via Leiria. Leiria is also a major highway hub, at the intersection of the old main road from Lisboa to Porto with highways to Figueira da Foz, Fátima and Marinha Grande.
Another very clear feature of the regional economy of the Pinhal Litoral is the weight of industry in all of its municipalities. Marinha Grande has one of the Centro region's highest rates of industrial employment, with 63%. The main industries in the region are those associated with moulding, glass and plastics.
In demographic terms, the Pinhal Litoral has great potential. Not just because it has a young population, but also because it has the population growth essential to development, with an increase of 7.5% between 1995 and 2001, compared to a national population growth of only 2.3% during the same period. Pinhal Litoral had the highest population increase of all Portuguese sub-regions.
The region's main weakness derives from the decline over recent years of certain traditional industries, in particular glass, where a fair number of businesses are on the verge of bankruptcy or going through a difficult process of economic recovery. With industrial activity fundamental to the region's economy, industrial conflict has begun to appear, adding the threat of unemployment to social tensions and popular uneasiness.
Importance of industry
In 2001 the resident population of Pinhal Litoral was 247 800, giving one of the highest densities in the Centro region, with 135.3 inhabitants per square kilometre. The population growth has been the result of two concurrent phenomena: a positive balance on migration (with for the Centro region a strongly positive migration rate of +0.34% for 1995) and a positive balance on natural population increase, with the birth rate exceeding the death rate. This dynamic population growth can be expected to continue for some years to come, given the youthfulness of all municipalities in the region.
Leiria is the region's main urban centre (102 762 inhabitants in 2000), hardly surprising since it is also the administrative centre. This accounts for the above-average weight of the tertiary sector in the city's employment compared with the other municipalities: the supply of services is proportionate to the population served. Intra-regional commuter traffic is mainly towards Leiria, although the latest census also shows the influence of Marinha Grande, where a substantial number of people living in Leiria are employed.
Even so, the region's economy is largely dominated by industrial activity (40% of employment in 1999), in spite of the difficulties currently being faced by several sectors. The manufacture of non-metallic mineral products stands out. In the main this concerns glass, glassware and lead crystal at works in Batalha, Porto de Mós and Marinha Grande. Next in terms of employment come the manufacture of machinery and general equipment, and textiles, located mainly in Marinha Grande and Porto de Mós, respectively. Manufacture of rubber and plastics is another significant industry in the region, notably in Leiria and Marinha Grande.
With 11% of agricultural employment in 1999 Pinhal Litoral has the lowest level of any sub-region in the Centro. Thus, the remaining half of employment concerns the tertiary sector. It must be highlighted that the shares in Gross Value Added for the primary sector was significantly less important than for employment, with only 2% of GVA in 2000, while the secondary and tertiary sectors accounted for respectively 41% and 56%.
For tourism, the region has a rich historical and cultural heritage, with castles in Pombal, Leiria and Porto de Mós and the monastery of Batalha, to which much of the tourist activity in the region is attributable. The Batalha monastery is one of the largest and finest gothic buildings in Portugal, and the first in the Manueline style of the 16th century. Proximity to Fátima is another tourist asset, since the sanctuary there is one of the most celebrated religious sites in Portugal or indeed the world, attracting many thousands of pilgrims each year from Portugal and abroad. Monte Real in Leiria municipality is a major spa town, although it attracts few visitors from outside Portugal.
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