Olivenza: The Portuguese Town Spain Won't Let Go

The true story of the Olivenza Dispute, a centuries-old battle of borders, betrayal, and unfinished business

Image by the author on Leonardo

Olivença¹ was once a town in eastern Portugal, located between Elvas and Vila Viçosa in the Alentejo region before it became part of the Spanish Extremadura in southwestern Spain.²

During the Christian Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, under the reign of Portugal’s first king, Afonso Henriques, Christendom seized Olivença from the Umayyad Caliphate in 1166.

For the next two centuries, the town changed hands multiple times until 1297, when the Treaty of Alcañices officially recognized it as part of the Kingdom of Portugal. This treaty also established the 755-mile-long border between Portugal and Castile, known as the Raia (The Stripe).

In medieval times, the people of Olivença stood defiant and fought alongside Portugal’s armies, but European realpolitik had other plans.

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To this day, the Raia remains one of the oldest stable geopolitical boundaries in the world, except for this small town in the Alentejo. But now and then, Olivença makes the news here in Portugal.

Why has this small border town been the source of a feud between the Iberian neighbors for centuries?

As a linguist and cultural studies researcher, I’ve studied Olivença’s history, and the deeper I went, the wilder it got. Centuries-old treaties, shifting borders, and a dispute that still lingers today, you name it, the OIivenza Dispute has it all. It’s a story few people know, but once you do, you’ll never see the map the same way again.

The Olivenza Dispute: Source: Quickworld