Pateira de Fermentelos or simply Pateira is a natural lagoon, located in the triangle of the municipalities of Águeda, Aveiro and Oliveira do Bairro, before the confluence of the Cértima River with the Águeda River. It is surrounded by the parishes of Óis da Ribeira, Fermentelos, Espinhel and Requeixo.
Pateira de Fermentelos, together with the Águeda and Cértima river valleys, was included in the list of Ramsar sites.
It is one of the largest natural lagoons on the Iberian Peninsula, and is a place where traditional moliço harvesting takes place.
Fauna and Flora
It is an area very rich in fauna, flora and aquatic species, including several species of birds such as: bilns, shortfins, fishpeckers, and various types of ducks.
In the flora we can find everything from water lilies, canizia and bonhos.
At fishing level there are largemouth bass, pike, carp, mullet, perch, and it is known for its pimpões. There are also large quantities of red crayfish (an invasive species) and various species of amphibians.
In the last section of Cértima River, and before its joining Águeda River, a wide lagoon has emerged as a result of a gradual covering and flooding process over the low surrounding banks. Over the centuries it has become the largest lagoon of the Iberian Peninsula, and, despite the variations in the course of time, it reaches an area of more than 5km2 in the rainy season. Beyond its socio-cultural and economic importance, Pateira de Fermentelos is a semi-natural area of considerable value owing to its biodiversity. Dense patches of Lakeshore Bulrush (Schoenoplectus lacustris), Common Reed (Phragmites australis), Reedmace (Typha sp.) and other water plants border the banks and give rise to some isolated islands. The flattened leaves of the Water Lilies (Nuphar luteum and Nymphaea alba) float on the water surface. The efforts to remove and control the Common Water Hyacynth (Eichhornia crassipes), one invading species that has once covered almost totally the water mirror of the Pateira, have had some good results, although this species is still much present. Different bird species arrive here over the seasons, as it happens with the Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea), the Little Birten (Lxobrychus minutus) and the Marsh Harrier (Circus aeruginosus). Pateira and its surroundings are the habitat for various mammals, among which the European Otter (Lutra lutra), a protected species used to aquatic habitats. The access to the lagoon is possible in several spots of the different municipalities around: Espinhel Park, Óis da Ribeira Park and the viewpoint in Fermentelos (all three in Águeda municipality), Carreiro Velho Park (Perrães, Oiã, Oliveira do Bairro) or Requeixo Park (Requeixo, Aveiro).
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FERMENTELOS
40.567° N; 8.523° W
Fermentelos is a civil parish in the municipality of Águeda in the district of Aveiro, Portugal. The population in 2011 was 3,258, in an area of 8.58 km2.
History
Legend
A popular legend tells of three brothers, who had become lost in the fog, as they navigated the River Cértima and were guided to the Pateira. Impressed by the beauty of the region, they decided to stay and fished the waters of the river to sell to the neighboring villages. The three brothers (André, Domingos and Tomé) then tried to give the area a name, and began to argue. The youngest proposed Ferment and quickly got into conflict with the other two, leading to a duel. From the Portuguese name for ferment+duel developed the name Fermentelos.
Medieval
The first record of Fermentelos (1050) came from inventories by Gonçalo Viegas and his wife Flâmula, that elaborated on the significance of the vila and peoples. By 1077, a similar inventory was carried out, but this time included the possessions of Paio Gonçalves' lands. Around this time a reference to a Faramontanellos situated along the margins River Cértima appeared in document 549 in Diplomata et Charte.
From the earliest references, there were horse-mounted huntsmen, who paid the donatários a fee to hunt on lands designated for hunting, which were known as Foramontanos. During King Afonso II's inquiries in 1220, the local name had evolved to Foramontaelos, whose significance was the base terms fora+monte (likewise montaria, monteiro), which had its meaning in "mounted hunting on horseback". When these lands were small, or if the existence of games was little, the referred to these areas as Foramontanelos. These adjectives evolved into proper nouns, Foramontões e Foramontanelos, and finally appeared in documents, such as the Manuelino foral.
The King's investigations identified a large quality and quantity of cultivated goods, yet there is no reference to inhabitants, even as adjacent territories were populated. Foramontaelos was a village and all royal"; it was a royal domain that produced wheat, wine, a chickens, eggs, cheese and butter, but little was known if inhabitants only cultivated these lands, or resided within their boundaries.
Mata Real
King Manuel incorporated Formentelos into the now extinct municipality of Óis da Ribeira on 2 June 1516, when he established its foral. The area of Formentelos was designated as Mata Real de Perrães, Paradela, e Louredo (English: King's Land of Perrães, Paradela, e Louredo), and were direct neighbors of lands occupied by the Bishop of Coimbra and the Convent of Lourã. By the end of the 15th century, the King was obliged to entrust in Anrique de Almeida, his sheriff in Aveiro, with the caretaker-ship of the Mata de Perrães, in order to secure his local lands from vagrants who took deer and grazed their pigs on the lands.[5] In 1626, Lourenço de Almeida Alcoforado, son of the niece of Anrique de Almeida, who was inheritor of the royal privileges, sold these rights to Diogo de Teles Castel-Branco on 17 April 1626, in the presence of the notary Belchior Correia de Vasconcelos.[3]
In 1672 a formal site plan of the Mata Real was undertaken by the King, concluded that the land designated as the King's land had diminished considerably; owing to the necessity to examine these domains by boat, it was determined that a portion had become a part of the Pateira de Fermentelos.
Geography
Fermentalos is located on the far south-western frontier of the municipality of Águeda, on the border with the municipalities of Oliveira do Bairro (to the south) and Aveiro (to the northwest). Similarly, it is fronted by the parishes of Requeixo (to the northwest), Óis da Ribeira (to the northeast), Espinhel (to the east) and Oiã (to the south and southeast). Its northern border is naturally divided by the Pateira de Fermentelos, a freshwater lake which it shares with its northern neighbors.
Access to the community is by the E.N.235 (from Aveiro and Oliveira do Bairro), and from Águeda center along the E.N.333, with access relative to the southern Aveiro A1 corridor.
Eco-regions/protected areas
Pateira de Fermentelos - a natural lake formed from the confluences of the Cértima and Águeda Rivers. It is the largest natural lake in the Iberian peninsula, and a zone rich in flora and fauna, including species of aquatic birds, such as: the little bittern, purple heron kingfisher, western marsh harrier, black kite and various types of duck.[7] In addition, local fish, such as largemouth bass, Esox, carp, mullet, and perch, and the commercial popularity of crayfish and rays, support the freshwater fishing industry of the region.
