1st row Afonso I • Saint Anthony • Pope John XXI • Nuno Álvares Pereira • Afonso de Albuquerque • Vasco da Gama
2nd row Álvares Cabral • Damião de Góis • Fernão Mendes Pinto • Camões • António Vieira • Eça de Queiroz
The Portuguese people (Portuguese os Portugueses; literally the Portuguese) are the ethnic group or nation native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Portuguese is their native language and Roman Catholicism is their predominant religion.
Modern Portuguese are an Iberian ethnic group and their ancestry is very similar to other western and southern European peoples, particularly from the Iberian Peninsula, with whom it shares ancestry and has cultural proximity. It is largely consistent with the geographic position of the western part of the Iberian peninsula, located on the extreme southwest of continental Europe. There are clear connections with the Mediterranean peoples as well as with those of Atlantic and Western Europe. Dark brown hair and dark hazel and brown eyes predominate in a majority of Portuguese people, however blond hair and blue or green eyes are also found with some frequency.
The Portuguese are a southwestern European population, predominantly Mediterranean and Atlantic European.
