| Ourém |
10
km beyond the Catholic shrine of Fátima, the road winds
down in a series of curves towards the old walled town of Ourém.
Local legend insists that in the 12th century Gonçalo
Hermingues, a gallant knight known as the Traga Mouros (Moor
Devourer), captured a Moorish woman named Fátima on a
military expedition, falling in love with her and marrying her
after she converted to Christianity. She subsequently changed
her name to Ouriana, from which the town derives.
What to see. Set imposingly on top of a conical-shaped hill,
Ourém Castle was built in the 15th century by King Afonso,
grandson of Nuno Álvares Pereira, and has scarcely changed
since the Middle Ages. It was once the prison of a kidnapped
queen, seized in 1246 from King Sancho II by a group of riotous
barons headed by Raimundo Viegas de Portocarreiro, a brother
of the archbishop of Braga. Entered through two massive gates,
and merging with the ruins of a Renaissance palace, the castle
represents two hundred years of imaginative fortification.
Nearby, the Church of the Visitation houses the magnificent
tomb of the Count of Ourém, lover of the wicked queen
Leonor, stabbed to death in the royal palace in Lisbon by the
future King John I in 1383.
The town’s Gothic fountain dates back to the 15th century.
Nearby. Standing on a high-lying plateau, a short drive southwest
of Ourém, the religious sanctuary of Fátima is
a pilgrimage centre of immense international dimensions. Often
described as the ‘Lourdes of Portugal’, Fátima
is the site of the visions of the Virgin Mary said to have been
witnessed on 13 May, 1917, by three peasant children. |
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| © 2007 Maisturismo |
