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Monuments



Historic Center



In the historic center of São Brás de Alportel there are some of the most valuable jewels in the heritage of the county.



Históric Center 



Roman Causeway

roman causeway

A Paved causeway of roman origin is one of the most important ex-libris of the town of São Brás. In the century XVIII/XIX it was renovated by D.Francisco Gomez de Avelar. Its paving was used to overcome natural obstacles.

Mother-Church

Mother-Church

The church was built on the XVth century. It was rebuilt in 1554.After the earthquake of 1755, the church was damaged.  In 1799 it was renovated. The church is situated on a high point, and the forecourt of the church offers a good viewpoint of the landscape of São Brás de Alportel.

Mother-Church



Ethnographic Museum of dress Algarve.



The house where the museum is installed belonged to Miguel Dias de Andrade, a cork capitalist and property owner. Lucilia Dias Sancho, his granddaughter, on dying bequeathed the building to the Santa Casa da Misericordia. Her husband, Antonio da Conceicao, did comply with his wish.
Later the costume museum was born in the Algarve. It is now considered a major crossing point for those who want to know a little bit of some traditions and customs of the Algarve region.

Museum











 

Festivities

São Bras de Alportel is a town with a taste of country side and with the enchantment of the past. The historic centre and the people have a lot of history: the Christmas crib, the “charolas” which is a singing festivity which takes place in the beginning of the year, the carnival, processions and the fairs, one of which is “the country side fair.”

The Christmas cribs of São Brás de Alportel

Machados

The different places of the county of São Brás are very proud of their cribs.

Apart from those that are made and displayed in the town, there are also those of Mesquita, Peral , the Machados and Corotelo.

The Algarve crib has little to do with the one from Belém : a traditional crib of the Algarve is simple and sober ; it has an armed staircase with the child Jesus standing at the top , small pots of wheat seeds that germinate and  grow  herbs in order for the child Jesus to bless  wheat and oranges . They are symbolic fruits of wealth that are placed in the crib to be blessed.

Charolas

Charola da Mesquita

The “Charolas" are a tradition associated with New Year celebration, whose origin is not well determined .

Currently “Charolas” groups gather in meeting: some of them organized by São Brás Cultural Association that in 2011, held the 28^th meeting of Charolas .

This is one of the oldest in the Algarve , and the show can be seen in the São Brás Cinema Theater , since it is open to the whole community, all other meetings are held all over the county .

In these songs the group bring with them the baby Jesus in a basket or wooden box and at the end receives gifts by way of "thanks“.

Santa Maria fair “Purple stick "

The Santa Maria fair takes place on the 2nd of February in S. Brás de Alportel. It is commonly known as “ the purple stick fair.” A long time ago it used to take place in “ barreira dos porcos” (the reason for this name is because they used to sale pigs in that fair).

Carnival

Carnival

In S. Brás de Alportel we also celebrate the carnival, traditionally and playful as in the old days.

Very playful, happy and Portuguese the carnival is a popular celebration that has a saying (it's carnival no one takes it badly)

This traditional carnival takes place for a few days, but the main day is Tuesday, and when the tradition is fulfilled the people comes to the streets to play and wear dressing costumes. Every one is welcome.

This year São Bras realized the 11th contest of carnival which is financially supported by the council.

Easter

Easter is one of the most important commemorations of western cultures.

Its origin goes back many centuries ago. The term “Easter” comes from Latin “Pascae”, its origin is religious.

In Ancient Greece this term was also find as “Paska”, but the remotest origin is Hebraic: “Pasach”, that means passage. 

Among Christians, the week before Easter is known as a Holy week. It begins on “Palm Sunday”, it marks the entrance of Jesus on the city of Jerusalem. 

Every Easter Sunday São Brás town becomes a stage for one of the prettiest and more prestigious religious processions of the country.  

Alleluia feast “Flowering Torches”

One of the oldest and more religious feast of the Algarve only happens in this county. We are talking about the Alleluia feast,” Flowering Torches”, which let us admire flower carpets created directly on the floor.

The streets get crowded with people because of faith or tradition; they rise up the torches, singing the refrain “Risen as He said! Alleluia!  Alleluia! Alleluia!”  

Testimony Mr.Bernardino

Mr. Bernardino is one of many persons that participate every year on this Alleluia procession. He started to take part on this feast when he was only four years old, encouraged by his uncle.

He elucidated us that they drink brandy during the procession to “tune their voices”.

Mr. Bernardino is surly a talented person, he has won the first prize almost every year, taking also the second prize as well.

He also said that the torches are made by hand starting with a wood stick and nylon string to hold the ornaments together; we use such flowers as: a kind of a wild rose called “rosa albardeira”, "pampilhosa", cuckoo pants, wild onion, wheat ear and palm. They are caught on the feast eve. On early morning, people start the ornament job, and it takes about 4 hours to finish the torches.

Procissão do Senhor dos Passos

Lord of the Steps

The procession of “Lord of the steps “is one of the important parts of Holy Week.

It takes place on Palm Sunday (the fourth Sunday of Lent), and many faithful follow Christ on the road to Calvary. The steps are seven and once upon a time there were home altars along the route.

Arts and crafts

The São Bras old crafts bring us memories of other times.

Times gone by but customs that remain and remind us of what was normal and now causes us admiration and nostalgia.

In other eras São  Bras de Alportel saw the outbreak of arts and crafts that currently do not exist or are disappearing. We have examples in the work of the palm, clay or stone in some places of the county that still remain.



There are also memories of SÃO BRÁS DE ALPORTEL crafts that in ancient times were essential to everyday life. We are talking about the tailor, barber, ladies hairdresser, paver, castrator, baker, blacksmith, photographer, carpenter, mide wife , shoemaker. Currently there are still some small production units such as artisans factory , carob , cork , marble oil ,  mill and shed.



Knife and Garrote

 Castrator

Castrators normally lived in the village and walked across the hills to pursue their craft: a knife and a garrote were the only tools. Mr. Manuel, began the craft at age of 12 and worked until the age of 87. He castrated pigs, horses and donkeys.He learned from his father.Mr. Manuel had to get a diploma, to pursue this profession.



Carob Factory


Factory Carob

The carob tree is a large tree that adapts well to dry weather, and keesp the production in excess of 150 years. Carob ,after grinding, is used in animal feed and in many products such as confectionery and liqueurs.



Oil Mill

 Oil mill

Olive oil production is similar to that of our ancestors. Since the time of the Romans who handled this type of milling the olives, or used presses conical stone and were moved by animal power. With the advent of electricity this process is much easier, now everything works with machinery.

                                               Cork Factory

Cork

When you plant a cork tree you have to wait 25 to 30 years for cork. Cork is a material of plant origin, it is a noble raw material and it is used in the coating of soil, insulation (thermal and acoustic), musical instruments, in home furnishings, footwear, and corks. Factory NOVA CORTIÇA works since 1986. Its work consists mainly in producing disks of cork stoppers for champagne or wine.



Miller

 Miller

Miller is an old profession linked to grinding the grain, especially wheat for making flour. The term o miller was used for both workers of a mill and the owner. The profession of miller is one of the oldest human occupations and arose independently in various parts of the world, having been essential to the development of agriculture. Mr. Paulino Viegas was a miller for 79 years since the age of 15 to help his father. Since this profession is not very profitable, he went to work into the building industry, but has fond memories of the time he was miller. Mr. Paulino said that in the old days, due to poverty the miller acted as the father of the people, that is, many families would receive the flour to make porridge for the children. There were no cash payments, everything was done by trade.The millers, in addition to working in the mills, made it their home.

                                              Tree Cleaner

Tree Cleaner

It is an individual who cleans trees of dry firewood and is responsible for pruning at the correct time. Previously, a scavenger of trees had few resources, he only used shears and saws. It took a long time to clear a tree of medium size, maybe 2 to 3 hours. It was very time consuming and poorly paid. Today there are more resources, such as scissors and electric saws. But there is much work because people do not treat the land as they did before. It is an endangered profession.


 

Oral tradition

Folk tales are an integral part of the culture and oral traditions of a people.

They reflect the most varied feelings of the soul of the people, their habits, customs, vices and character. Often confused with other concepts, such as a legend or myth, the tale is a short narrative text, usually fictional or with presumably true contents. It is an anonymous source text that seeks to amuse, entertain or educate the listener. Although the tale is a literary form now recognized and used by many writers, its origin is humble. It started as a simple and unpretentious account of imaginary situations intended to occupy the leisure time. As it was oral the memory limitations meant that the story wasshort. These same circumstances dictate limiting the number of characters, and reducing inaccuracies in the special and temporal references, as well as simplification of the action.

Oral tales 

The soldier and the tavern

A soldier, already very bored with his life, decided to go eat something in a tavern. The innkeeper (a lady) baked him a dozen eggs. The soldier ate the eggs and started to play cards with the devil for a long time without. When he went to the tavern to pay, the woman told him. “If you paid then it would have been this much, but now it’s more expensive. If you didn’t eat the eggs, they would have turned into chickens and they would worth a lot more". The soldier called the devil to defend him, but the devil took a long time to come. When he came the judge asked him angrily why it had taken so much time to come. The devil answered that he had been toasting beans to sow. The judge said “so toasted beans grow when you sow them? ”And the devil said “and boiled eggs give birth to chicken?” The judge immediately sent the soldier free.

Two friends

It happened in S. Brás de Alportel in the Pau-Roxo market (the purple-stick market). Two friends met. One was a rich man and other was poor:

-Oh my friend, did you come to the market?

-Yes, so did you.

The rich man says to the poor man:

-You did well in coming, to help the market to be good, and can you do me a favour? Could you lend a thousand escudos to buy a cow ?

The poor man agreed and went home to get the money since he lived near.

He came back and lend the money on the condition the rich man would give it back on the next day, because he also had bought a cow and needed to pay it the following day.

The rich man agreed. -  Tomorrow I will give you back the money.

And they agreed on a place to meet. The next day the poor man went to the place they had agreed and waited for the rich man the whole day, but the rich man did not appear.

The poor man went to the rich man’s house to understand what had happened.

- My friend. I waited for you the whole day.

- Why did you wait for me?

- For you to give me back the thousand escudos I lent you yesterday,

- You did not lend me any money yesterday.

- I lent you money yesterday in the market in order for you to buy a cow.

- You did not lend me any money and I didn´t go to the market yesterday.

- Don’t say that, yesterday there in the market you asked me for a thousand escudos.

- I didn’t ask you anything, go away and have a good afternoon.

- A good afternoon is what you had yesterday. I wish a had a good afternoon like you did yesterday.

Legends

S. Brás de Alportel

This legend is important for the community of Alportel and reflects the event of the creation of the only parish in the county thanks to the will of S. Bras to chose the place (Venda Nova), where he wanted a chapel to built in his honour by the residents.

Homemade remedies

People used to prepare small recipes for health problems.                       People used to mix ingredients to make homemade remedies.                Taken in the right proportions they could make miracles.                          People didn´t spend too much money and didn’t have secondary effects.Today people still resort to this type of “mezinhas” (homemade remedies).

Homemade remedies to cure the flu:

Tea of coals: take two of three embers on fire and put them in a cup with

two teaspoons of sugar until the sugar melts. Then withdraw the embers

put some boiling water, cover it up, slap up a bit and it is ready to drink.

Poem

We have a new president

In the county of S.Brás

What he promised to do

He should be able to do

He was elected by the people

Because he deserved a lot of kindness

In our parish

The staff is satisfied

They should save on their chest

This ardent desire

And he should be competent

For what he promised

As the elections he won

We have a new president

During his term

Good and evil he must know

But it seems to be his duty

To be pure and fair

And do not look only to the suit

Of the one who does nothing

Be competent and daring

Because this value was given to him

He should do what wasn’t done

In the municipality of S.Brás

The people are by his side

Knowing the difficulties

But he should look at the needs

Always with love and appreciation

So he will be praised

And fortunately worthy

Anyone heart feels

If the promise is fulfilled

It has to be done in life

What was promised to many people

That luck will run well

It's all we wish

When I see him next to me

Cherish and appreciate someone

One should give value to those who have it

Without leaving anyone behind

Always in harmony and peace

My values ​​I give to him

In the  party meetings what he presented

He should be able to do

Recipe

Easter Folar

Ingredients:

1 kg of bread dough

1 kg sugar

4 or 5 eggs



Easter Almonds

 half a pack of margarine

2 tablespoons olive oil or lard

fennel tea

cinnamon

lemon zest

Confection:

Beat it all together. To anoints forms with margarine, turns up with the dough until the middle of the form, put an egg on
top of the dough and bake for one hour. Remove from the oven and unmold it
hot.