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OBIDOS
5.000 inhabitants
History
Obidos was founded by the Romans. The name Obidos comes from a Roman name, Oppidum, which means city
surrounded by walls. Then came the barbarians (Visigoths).
Next came the Arabs. They were surrounded by Afonso Henriques, 1st king of Portugal, during 2 months, from
November of 1147 up to January 11th 1148. The Arabs that stayed there, inhabited the Moorish section that would
become the Jewish quarter, completely destroyed by the earthquake of 1755 and giving place to Rua Nova (New
Street) that still exists.
Alphonse II donated Obidos to his wife Urraca (devoted to saint Francis, see Alcobaça) so that with the rent of taxes of
this city she could pay her debts. For that reason, during 600 years, Obidos belonged to the queens, to the House of
the Queens, (let's say instead that all the kings, for 600 years, gave the city to their wives) that is to say that the
queens had the taxes of Obidos and its surroundings, including a very important trading port in that time, the port of
Salir. They went for vacations in Obidos, taking noblemen, artists and all the lovers behind. One of the artists was a
Sevillian painter, called Josefa de Ayala, who came here to live in the XVII century, making a school of painting. They
called her Josefa of Obidos. She was a talented artist: painter, miniaturist, ceramist, goldsmith, etc. Her well-known
paintings were still lives. She has been one of the very few feminine artists who became famous in the past.
Sancho II came to live in Obidos. His brother, the count of Bologna, surrounded Obidos during 8 months. The
resistance to the siege gave it the title of "very noble and always loyal city".
Given by king Dinis to his wife, Isabel of Aragon, the saintly queen, as they called her (her aunt was Saintly Isabel, king
of Hungary's daughter. She practiced charity a lot. She invited the poor to her palace, washed their feet, fed them and
gave them money. She intervened in the fights between her husband and brothers and sons. She made several
miracles: one day her husband caught her taking gold in her apron to give to the poor. Her husband stopped her and
asked her what she was carrying and the queen said she was carrying roses. When the husband looked at the gold he
saw roses (this was known as the miracle of roses). She ordered later the construction of a church in Leiria and paid
the workers with those roses. When the workers got the roses they turned gold. In 1612 her tomb was opened, 276
years after her death and the body was intact and for that reason she was canonized (declared saint)).
Inés de Castro was hiding here.
King Fernando also gave to Obidos his wife, Leonor Teles, who ordered the reconstruction of the walls. John I also
gave Obidos (like Sintra) to Falipa of Lencaster.
John II's wife, Leonor, came here to mourn for her son's death, prince Alphonse. Her symbol was a fishing net (where
her dead son appeared).
King Manuel and John III ordered works in the castle (to replace doors and windows). King Sebastian was once in
Obidos (he took 520 noblemen from Obidos to conquer Morocco and most of them died). Felipe III of Spain ordered
the aqueduct and fountains to be restored.
John IV ordered the restoration of the city council (today is the local jail) and ordered to put above all the doors of the
town the following motto: "The Virgin has been conceived without original sin."
The earthquake of 1755 damaged Obidos a lot.
Here was the duke of Wellington combating Napoleon's army.
Description
A charming typical town where one can still see the medieval atmosphere. At the top of a hill, surrounded by walls like
all the towns in that time (Carcassonne and Perouges in France, Avila in Spain, Marvão, Valença, Castelo de Vide and
others in Portugal) dominating a valley. With its narrow, labyrinthine streets, ancient whitewashed houses, painted
blue, red and yellow (the colors of the town; they say that these colors, the blue and yellow, scares bad spirits away) its
balconies with flowers (geraniums, bougainvilleas, arums; the town already won several competitions of flowers), its
manueline doors.
Obidos has the form of an iron or of an arrow with the tip turned towards. It?s a question of defense because of the
attacks of the Arabs that came from the south. The walls are of Roman and Arab origins. The walls were begun by the
Romans (round towers), continued by the Arabs (square towers) and rebuilt in the XII, XIV and XVI centuries and some
parts are 13 m high. King Dinis tower is 30 meters high. I advise you to go up to see the view.
The aqueduct is 3 Km long and it worked until 1946. Queen Catherine ordered it in 1573. The town has 6 doors (2
are tiny) and each one has near the entrance its chapel or oratory made in the rock of the walls with the Virgin's
statue. The south door has tiles of the XVIII century representing to the right Jesus' Agony in the orchard and to the left
S. Peter cutting Malco´s ear of.
In the middle of the main street there is a corridor without holes mainly designed for ladies with high heel shoes.
Obidos has 30 churches in the interior and surroundings (13 are inside the village).
The church of Our Lady of the Stone, half a mile away from Obidos, was ordered by John V. It is hexagonal (6 sides)
and inside there is the berlin that carries the statue of the Virgin from Santa Maria's Church in Obidos to the Church of
Our Lady in Nazaré, every 8th of September. The main church inside Obidos, Santa Maria, was made where the
Visigoths had their church, in the end of the VIII century. The Arabs made a mosque there, but, the present building is
in Renaissance style of the XVII century (it's nothing but a reconstruction). The building is probably from previous
centuries). Inside there are beautiful blue and white tiles of the end of the XVII century, also Hispanic-Arab tiles of the
XV century and paintings by the painter of Obidos João da Costa (all in the main chapel) and of the school of Josefa
Ayala (the other ones). The painting of Saint Catherine's mystic wedding, in the main chapel, is signed by her. In the
main chapel there are very old Hispano-Arab tiles (XV century). On the Gospel side (north, left) there is the tomb of
Obidos mayor, in 1575, João de Noronha. Made by João de Ruan, it is a work in Renaissance style. There is also here
the statue of the Virgin that every September 8th goes to Nazaré. It was in this church that king Alphonse V, when he
was 10 years old, married his 8 years old cousin Isabel (cousin in first degree). It is for that reason that everybody gets
married in this church. In front of the church there is a pillory (where the convicts were exposed to public shame,
standing naked and tied to the pillory), with Leonor's shield. At the top there is the net with which a fisherman picked
up Alphonse's body (Queen Leonor's son).
In the square of the church, there is the Municipal museum with pieces of Josefa of Obidos, with souvenirs of the war
against Napoleon and luso-Roman archaeological remains.
Castle (palace): Dominating the town, it was ordered by king Dinis in 1375 and rebuilt in the XVI century. (to the left as
we enter, there's king Fernando tower and to the right the tower of king Dinis, 30 meters high). It was made palace by
a mayor, João de Noronha. From the castle we see an excellent view. The palace was transformed in a state-inn, the
smallest in Portugal, with 6 rooms only.
Generalities
Obidos has a lot of handicraft: the cotton carpets are one of the specialties.
The region of Obidos has famous apple trees and pear trees. It has a very well qualified wine, white and red, of a
demarcated area, Gaeiras.
Holyday: January 11, day of the conquest from the Arabs in 1148. It has 2 sources of mineral water, similar to the
water of Caldas. In the Holy Week they make an important procession, carrying a strange articulated crucifix
stopping in front of the 14 stops of Via Cruces (14 small chapels in memory of Jesus' Christ passion (the Crucifixion,
Christ in the Cross and Descent)).
Near Obidos there is a lagoon (small lake) 6 Km long and 2,5 Km wide. Before it was bigger and it reached Obidos. It is
the vestige of the sea, because before the ocean arrived to Obidos in a gulf. But the erosion of rivers, which arrived to
that gulf, originated the alluvium (silts brought by the rivers) of the gulf. For that reason, there are very fertile lands
there. They can fish eels there, soles, clownish, golden, flounder, corvine, and shellfish: shrimps, clams, mussels and
hunt aquatic birds as ducks, gulls, cranes, etc. We can fish and hunt here.
CALDAS DA RAÍNHA (THE QUEEN'S BATHS) (5 km away from Obidos)
Leonor, John II's wife, founded in 1485 the Hospital of Caldas, the oldest thermal Hospital in the world. For the
construction, she had to sell her jewels. She had rheumatism. And once, when she was in Obidos, she passed by this
place and she saw people bathing in smelly waters (sulfuric water). She asked why and people told her that the water
was good for cures of rheumatism. The queen did the same and she got cured. She ordered to build the Thermal
Hospital, selling her jewels to pay for it. These waters were already known by the Romans who came here to ill
rheumatism and bronchitis. Since then this Hospital became famous in Portugal, mainly among the court. It is here that
there is one of the artistic ceramic manufactures with humorous topics that are very well known in Portugal, some of
them pornographic and obscene.
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