Sertã (), officially Town of Sertã (), is a municipality in Castelo Branco District in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 15,880,Instituto Nacional de Estatística in an area of 446.73 km2.Eurostat
The present mayor is Carlos Miranda, elected by the PS. 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 ().
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):
{| class="wikitable sortable" !Parish name !Population (2011) !Area km2
|Cabeçudo |align="right"|957 |align="right"|10.39 |- |Carvalhal |align="right"|465 |align="right"|10.02
|Castelo |align="right"|1,046 |align="right"|24.57 |- |Cernache do Bonjardim, Nesperal e Palhais |align="right"|3,625 |align="right"|101.58 |- |Cumeada e Marmeleiro |align="right"|731 |align="right"|51.73 |- |Ermida e Figueiredo |align="right"|423 |align="right"|42.74
|Pedrógão Pequeno |align="right"|753 |align="right"|36.86 |- |Sertã |align="right"|6,196 |align="right"|80.95
|Troviscal |align="right"|864 |align="right"|53.37 |- |Várzea dos Cavaleiros |align="right"|820 |align="right"|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
References