Fundão proper is an old city with 8,369 inhabitants in 2001,[1] situated at the point where the slope of the Gardunha range meets the Cova da Beira plains, 500 metres above sea level.

Pombal tried to recreate the industrial preëminence of Fundão by founding the Royal Factories (today known as the City Hall).

These efforts allowed a measure of revival to the wool industries of the city, and cloth was again exported to northern Europe.

The city decayed again after its sack during the defeated Napoleonic French invasions of Portugal, and the subsequent Civil War between supporters of the Liberal Constitutionalist D. Pedro and his brother Conservative Absolutist D. Miguel, who were competing for the throne.

[4] Fundão has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa) with cool, rainy winters and hot, dry summers.

Administratively, the municipality is divided into 23 civil parishes (freguesias):[6] The town is an important local center of industry and services.

Around it lies some of the most fertile land in the region, in a large valley (Cova da Beira) between the Gardunha and Estrela ranges, where the Zêzere River starts its way towards the Tagus.