Lisbon: Portugal's Islamic past

Coming into Mertola from the East you cross a deep gorge. Ahead, a sharp bluff is dominated by a castle, from which the town wall slopes sharply down to embrace whitewashed houses trimmed with yellow and blue in traditional style.

There is little sign today that this small settlement on the Guadian River fifty miles from the Spanish border was a major inland port in Roman and-most importantly-in Moorish times. Now, for the first time, it is gaining wider attention, with the opening of an Islamic museum displaying rare artifacts from a long-neglected period of the town's history.

The museum's creation-with enthusiastic support from local and national authorities-is part of a broader shift in attitudes toward Portugal's Islamic past. For decades, the fascist regime that ended in 1974 sought to unify the nation by defining it in contrast to an enemy-the civilization that existed before the Christian conquest.

Mertola's new museum upsets that vision. The first...