Paredes da Vitória
Paredes da Vitória is a port city in Portugal that was lost in the 16th century and was one of the 13 cities of the Coutos de Alcobaça , the former domain of the Abbey of Alcobaça . Today Paredes is a village with a few 100 inhabitants, part of the town of Pataias , located about 6 km inland in the Alcobaça district and the Leiria district , in the historical province of Estremadura .
Today's Paredes
The modern Paredes is located in and around the former harbor bay of the historic city, in an unusually attractive location with steep rocks and cliffs in the middle of a densely overgrown forest area. A narrow river valley with almost a hundred meters high steep slopes stretches into the country. Most of the new buildings are used for tourism. Nothing is reminiscent of the historic city, with the exception of the formation of part of the old harbor bay formed by the landscape. The tradition of the Marian procession from Pataias to Paredes, which takes place annually on August 15 in honor of the Nossa Senhora da Vitória (Our Lady of Victory), today is accompanied by horses, mules and tractors , continues the old grandeur . In the past, such processions also led to the Nossa Senhora da Nazaré in Sítio, Nazaré .
Historic place
The historic port of Paredes probably already existed in Roman times, as a Roman road started from Paredes, which led via Colipo ( São Sebastião do Freixo near Leiria ), Porto de Mós , Tomar to Conimbriga (near today's Coimbra ). According to medieval descriptions, the rock formation still protruding into the sea on the west side of the bay, together with a pier, shielded the bay. During the Reconquista this area was liberated from the Moors between 1140 and 1150 and the king took over the port. According to the deed from 1153 with which Afonso Henriques , the first king of Portugal, founded the Alcobaça Abbey and at the same time gave it an area of almost 500 km², in which the later Coutos de Alcobaça were created, Paredes is located within the foundation area . In fact, Paredes was used as a royal port, especially by King Dinis in his reign from 1279-1325, as the port was particularly close to the king's preferred residence in Leiria. During this time Paredes is said to have had over 600 inhabited houses, which would have corresponded to a population of around 2,400 people, according to other tradition there were only just under 500 inhabitants in 1340. King Dinis gave Paredes a charter in 1282, expressly excluding it from the rule of the Alcobaça Abbey. In 1368, however, King Fernando I (1345-1383), whose father Pedro I had been buried a year earlier in the monastery of Alcobaça together with his great love Inês de Castro , gave Paredes to the abbey. It is reported that the port has shown great growth until the reign of King Manuel I (1491–1521). In 1515, like most of the other cities of the Coutos de Alcobaça, Paredes received a new city statute from King Manuel. But since the beginning of the 16th century the population has decreased rapidly, in 1527 only 27 inhabited houses were counted, in 1537 only 14. In 1542 it is reported that the church was moved from Paredes to Pataias and that the last inhabitants had also moved there. Pataias, until then a settlement belonging to Paredes, received city rights in the same year. Before that, many residents of Paredes, such as the fishermen who could not miss the sea, had settled south of Pederneira, now Nazaré , on the heights of Famalicão . They also took the patron saint of Parades Nossa Senhora da Vitória with them in the form of a statue.
Reasons of decline
The reasons for the sudden demise of Paredes are obscure. On the one hand, an increasing silting up of the bay of Paredes is mentioned, something that two hundred years later the ports of Pederneira , São Martinho do Porto and Alfeizerão , all cities of the Coutos de Alcobaça, were to hit, but this was not only due to the change that suddenly occurred in Paredes able to explain. Others point to the great catastrophes of the 16th century, which generally occurred from 1527 in the form of the plague and great earthquakes. A contemporary reported about an earthquake in 1531 that everything shook as if heaven and earth had met. Reports about the last resettlement of the inhabitants of Paredes to Pataia in 1542 also mention an earthquake as the reason. Several of these circumstances will probably have coincided which forced the population of Paredes to give up their city and port.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Maria Zulmira Albuquerque Furtado Marques, Por Terras dos Antigos Coutos de Alocbaça, Alcobaça 1994, p. 170
- ↑ Estrada Romana-Alqueidão da Serra, Site of the Câmara Municipal Porto de Mós: [1]
- ^ Frei Francisco Brandão, one of the Chronistas de Alcobaça , in the 5th part of the historical Monarchia Lusytana , Book XVI, p. 120
- ↑ Maria Zulmira Albuquerque Furtado Marques, Por Terras dos Antigos Coutos de Alcobaça, Alcobaça 1994, pp. 165-166; Câmara de Alcobaça, archived copy ( Memento of the original of March 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ História de Portugal, Ed .: José Mattoso, Vol. III: No Alvorecer da Modernidade (1480-1620), 1993, Editorial Estampa, ISBN 972-33-1084-8 , pp. 215-217
- ↑ History of Pataias (port.): Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
literature
- Maria Zulmira Albuquerque Furtado Marques: Por Terras dos Antigos Coutos de Alcobaça , Alcobaça 1994