Sertã

For the civil parish, see Sertã (parish). For other uses, see Serta.

Sertã (Portuguese pronunciation: [sɨɾˈtɐ̃] ^ⓘ), officially Sertã Town (Portuguese: Vila da Sertã), is a municipality in Castelo Branco District in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 15,880,^[1] in an area of 446.73 km².^[2]

Sertã Town
Municipality
Flag Coat of arms
Coordinates: 39.80°N 8.10°W / 39.80; -8.10
Country	Portugal
Region	Oeste e Vale do Tejo
Intermunic. comm.	Médio Tejo
District	Castelo Branco
Parishes	10
Government
• President	José Farinha Nunes (PSD)
Area
• Total	446.73 km2 (172.48 sq mi)
Elevation	250 m (820 ft)
Population  (2011)
• Total	15,880
• Density	36/km2 (92/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+00:00 (WET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+01:00 (WEST)
Postal code	6100
Area code	(+351) 274
Local holiday	Birthday of Nuno Álvares Pereira, 24 June
Website	Official website (in Portuguese)

The present mayor is José Farinha Nunes, elected by the PSD. The municipal holiday is the June 24.

Population of Sertã (1801 – 2011)
1801	1849	1900	1930	1960	1981	1991	2001	2011
10235	13456	20380	24057	27997	21503	18199	16720	15880

Etymology

The town's name literally means "frying pan", but is near-certainly a phono-semantic matching of a pre-Roman toponym. This hasn't stopped the creation of all manner of folk etymological legends seeking to explain name of the town, the most famous of which is the so-called "Legend of Celinda", supposedly a Lusitanian woman who had been frying eggs while the settlement was under attack by Quintus Sertorius' forces and, upon learning of her husband's death, poured boiling hot cooking oil on the besiegers. This story has lent the town its name Sartago Sternit Sartagine Hostes (lit. 'Sertã scatters its enemies with a sertã').

General information

Local sports club: Sertanense Futebol Clube (mainly devoted to soccer, playing (2004-2005) the 3rd Division Championship).

Local newspaper: A Comarca da Sertã (weekly)

Parishes

Administratively, the municipality is divided into 10 civil parishes (freguesias):^[3]

Parish name	Population (2011)[1]	Area km2[2]
Cabeçudo	957	10.39
Carvalhal	465	10.02
Castelo	1,046	24.57
Cernache do Bonjardim, Nesperal e Palhais	3,625	101.58
Cumeada e Marmeleiro	731	51.73
Ermida e Figueiredo	423	42.74
Pedrógão Pequeno	753	36.86
Sertã	6,196	80.95
Troviscal	864	53.37
Várzea dos Cavaleiros	820	34.51

Notable people

• Nuno Álvares Pereira (born 1360 in Cernache de Bonjardim - 1431) a Portuguese general, he became a mystic and was beatified by Pope Benedict XV, in 1918, and canonised by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009
• João Castel-Branco Goulão (born 1954 in Cernache do Bonjardim) a physician and the current national drug coordinator for Portugal