Cascais

Cascais (European Portuguese pronunciation: [kɐʃˈkajʃ] ) is a town and municipality in the Lisbon District of Portugal, located on the Estoril Coast. The municipality has a total of 214,158 inhabitants in an area of 97.40 km2. Cascais is an important tourist destination. Its marina hosts events such as the America's Cup and the town of Estoril, part of the Cascais municipality, hosts conferences such as the Horasis Global Meeting. Since the 1870s, Cascais has been a popular seaside resort after King Luís I of Portugal and the Portuguese royal family made the seaside town their residence every September, thus also attracting members of the Portuguese nobility, who established a summer community there. Cascais is known for the many members of royalty who have lived there, including King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, when he was the Duke of Windsor, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, and King Umberto II of Italy. Former Cuban president Fulgencio Batista was also once a resident of the municipality. The Casino Estoril inspired Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, Casino Royale. The municipality is one of the wealthiest in both Portugal and the Iberian Peninsula. It has one of the most expensive real estate markets and one of the highest costs of living in the country, and is consistently ranked highly for its quality of life.