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Religious minorities include a little over 300,000 Protestants. There is also about 50,000 Muslims and 10,000 Hindus, most of them came from Goa, a former Portuguese colony on the west coast of India. There are also about 1,000 Jews, but a considerable large number of people have some Jewish heritage, and although they consider themselves Catholics, one can observe some Jewish customs.

The islands of the Azores and Madeira are volcanic in origin, and in the Azores, one to nine volcanoes are possibly active.

Portugal is very well represented in sports such has Rink hockey, being the country with most world titles. Golf is also worth mentioning, since its greatest players play in the sunny region of the Algarve during the "Algarve Open".

During the summer, in the month of June, festivities dedicated to three saints known as Santos Populares (Eng. Popular saints) take place in all over Portugal. Why the populace associated the saints to these pagan festivities is not known. But it is possibly related to Roman or local deities before Christianity has spread in the region. The three saints are Saint Anthony, Saint John and Saint Peter. A common denominator in these festivities are the wine and água-pé (drink basically constituted by grape juice), traditional bread along with sardines, marriages, traditional street dances, fire, fireworks and joy.

Portuguese art was very restricted in the early years of nationality, during the reconquista, to a few paintings in churches, convents and palaces. It is after the 15th century, with the national borders established and with the discoveries, that the Portuguese art expanded. Some kings, like John of Portugal John I, already had royal paintors. It is during this century that the Gothic art is replaced by a more humanistic and Italian-like art.

The Government is headed by the Prime Minister, who names the Council of Ministers. A newly elected government is required to define the broad outline of its policy in a program and present it to the Parliament for a mandatory period of debate. Failure of the assembly to reject the program by a majority of deputies confirms the government in office.

The four main organs of the national government are the presidency, the prime minister and Council of Ministers (the government), the Assembly of the Republic (the parliament), and the judiciary.

An Islamic invasion took place in 711, destroying the Visigothic Kingdom. Many of the ousted nobles took refuge in the unconquered north Asturian highlands. From there they aimed to reconquer their lands from the Moors: this war of reconquest is known as the Reconquista. After the Moors were, for the most part, driven out of power, most of the Iberian peninsula was briefly united under Christian rule. However, it quickly split apart after the death of Ferdinand the Great of Leon and Castile, whose domains were divided by his children.

Portugal has developed an increasingly service-based economy since joining the European Union in 1986, a development that began with the boom of the 1960s.

Eating in Portugal is often a visitor's most remembered characteristic of the country. Each region of Portugal has its own traditional dishes, including various kinds of meat, sea-food, diverse and fresh fish.