SENHOR da PEDRA - MIRAMAR, PORTUGAL

Olá 🖐😎
In the coastal village of Miramar, in Gulpilhares, Vila Nova de Gaia, there is a small chapel, built on top of a rock, facing away from the sea. Small but monumental, fragile but strong, unreal and yet true, that is the beautiful Capela do Senhor da Pedra.
Watching from afar, it seems that the Atlantic will swallow it on the first stormy night, but three centuries have passed since its construction, and it is still here, firm. Perhaps it's because of the rock it sits on - a place of worship for over two thousand years.

As the inscription on the tile mosaic framed at the entrance to the chapel can attest, the giant stone originally housed a pagan temple, possibly Celtic. When Christianity arrived in Portugal, efforts were made to Christianize the territory and free it from its pagan roots. The place where the Capela do Senhor da Pedra now stands was then chosen to "recover" the land from the heretics, but despite the conversion to the Christian faith, secret ceremonies linked to the pagan cult still take place on nights of the full moon. It is said that it is common to find melted candles left by neo-pagan worshipers on the rocks and sand next to the chapel, but I didn't see any.
A not-so-secret ceremony is the pilgrimage that commemorates Senhor da Pedra, a festivity whose origins are lost in time and which takes place annually on the sandy beaches of Miramar. It starts on the Sunday of the Holy Trinity and lasts until the following Tuesday. The procession is the highlight of the festivities, which also include traditional swoops (dance) and animation by various popular groups.

In the old days, pilgrims would go early in the morning, on foot, to the chapel, sometimes forming swarms with people who gathered along the way. The women carried the “countess” on their heads, where they tucked the bag and the men carried the wine in gourds or even in ox horns. After fulfilling their promises at the place of worship, they went for a well-deserved rest and a picnic. At the end, they danced, formed circles and sang.

The importance that the pilgrimage to Senhor da Pedra had in the past is witnessed by the existence, in a radius of many kilometers around, of pilgrimage songs dedicated to him. There are songs to Senhor da Pedra in places like Cinfães and Paredes, among many others. This means that pilgrims from far away came to the Senhor da Pedra festivities.

The belief in the Senhor da Pedra may have originated in ancient pagan worship, but the people created stories and legends to explain the construction of the chapel and the importance of the rock that supports it.

Some say that the chapel was built as payment for a promise, by someone who survived a shipwreck on the high seas and was saved by a wave that transported him to the rock. Others believe that the image of Christ ended up there, brought by the sea itself and “that on a beautiful day it landed on that rock where, later, the chapel was built”.

Still others swear that when the inhabitants of Gulpilhares were preparing to build a hermitage to Senhor da Pedra, in the terreiro known as arraial, a mysterious light appeared on the rocks by the sea. Every night the light reappeared, making the inhabitants believe it was a sign from Heaven. For this reason, they gave up the construction of the chapel in the camp and decided to build the chapel in the place where the light used to appear.

Another famous legend associated with this place is the one that tells us that on a foggy morning D. Sebastião nailed his horse's hooves to one of the rocks, but ended up turning back without entering Portuguese beaches - thus justifying the two rounded marks and parallel lines that are supposed to be there.

But everything we can believe in is easily forgotten in the face of the extraordinary view of the beach and that chapel cinematically located on top of a rock buffeted by the waves of the sea. No wonder this place was voted the tenth most beautiful beach in Europe by the organization “European Best Destinations”.

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