Fatima and the region hide incredible secrets – some are more credible than others –, but which will in any case wake your curiosity!
There are nine: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe and Timor-Leste.
According to the Observatory of the Portuguese Language, Portuguese is the fourth most spoken language in the world, after Mandarin, Spanish and English. Of the top five of the most spoken languages, Hindi is still a part of it. If you speak only Portuguese, about 200 million people will understand.
Ribatejo is rich in legends and, in Contancia, it is said that two young people lived a forbidden love during the Portuguese civil war in the 19th century. The girl and the boy were from important families in the village, who belonged to opposing political camps - some were liberal and the other absolutists.
The two lovers ignored the family's probation and got married. Years later, on a visit to the city, the Queen Maria, hearing the story of love and resilience, said: "Due to the "constância" (constancy) of your love and the beauty of this land, which is so beautiful and has such an ugly name, from now on it will be called Constância. "
The legend goes back to the 19th century, and tells that the knight Guilherme de Pavia was hunting a deer when he heard someone hiding in the woods crying. He heard that cry for three days, and on the third day he went to Coimbra, asking Queen Santa Isabel to organize escorts to beat the ground. The Queen answered, saying that God had already told her what was happening: the image of Our Lady was there, with her son dead in her arms, and the cries of pain were from Our Lady. The Queen indicated to Guilherme Paiva the exact location of the image, and ordered the knight to fetch it and keep it. When Queen Isabel saw the image, she had it placed in a hermitage. Pilgrims began to travel to the place, in devotion to the Virgin. Some built houses and stayed there. The village was named "Dores", in honor of the statuette found, which time molded for Dornes.
A Moor, with green eyes and dark skin, will sing to them: Girl come to me, / Come my charm to break, / I am a Moor your friend / Who wants to date you.
The Moor is Al-Pal-Omar, who lived there and built an underground palace in the place where the Castle is now. The fame of her beauty was well-known, and few women resisted her bright, passionate green eyes.
Legend has it that one day the Portuguese troops led by Gualdim Pais fought Al-Pal-Omar to death, seeing him disappear forever in an enchanted cave of his palace. The troops covered all the entrances of the underground mansion and, above all, they built the Castle of Pombal.
If the girls do not escape immediately, after hearing the song of the Moor they have two hypotheses: or they let themselves be seduced, and accompany the Moor in eternity; or are doomed to never be beautiful again. It is said that the beautiful girls of Pombal like to go strolling to the Castle after sunset with their boyfriends, to annoy the Moor. Sometimes Al-Pal-Omar avenges them and destroys their marriages.
Since the end of the 19th century, a set of cultural and mental characteristics has been attributed to the Monastery of Batalha, conceiving a historical reading of nationalist and celebratory reference. Later, this view of the Monastery served as justification for electing the monument as guardian of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The Templars founded Tomar in the 12th century; however, this city still has traces of the Arabs. One of them is the Water Wheel, in the Parque of Mouchao, in the city centre.
King Dinis also played his part, but it was King Afonso III (his father) who ordered for the pine grove to be planted. ‘The Farmer King’ followed in his predecessor’s footsteps and continued the planting. Leiria’s Pine Grove was built in order to dry the swamps of the area and establish the great dunes, which painted the landscape with a golden colour. Even more so, the Pine Grove was not planted in order to have wood for building the ships. The favoured wood was oak and not pine. Still, the King’s Pine Grove played a part in the Discoveries: it provided flammable and waterproof material from the pine tree resin, which was used to seal the ship hulls.
Little is known about the period of time before the Castle of Leiria was built. We know that King Afonso Henriques ordered the Castle to be built, since it was in a strategic position during the Christian Reconquest. We also know that popular imagination knows no boundaries, and since the Castle stands on top of a hill, legend has it that this military fortification was actually built over a sleeping volcano, and this volcano – which has been sleeping for centuries – is heating the water of Fonte Quente. Fonte Quente is located near the Convent of St. Francis. There you have two fountains, the hot (Fonte Quente) and the cold fountain. The origin of this legend remains unknown.
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