“Wild West” Europe

When somety Doubon Kotu, Potter from the village near the city of Barcelouche in the north of Portugal, in the 30s of the twentieth century, caught his first – and therefore a slightly cleaner – a clay rooster, he was unlikely to think that he created the future symbol of his country. He painted a tall screed bright red and did not suspect that the years will be held – and the army of multiple painted roosters will be divided into the world in the form of a fridge magnets, brains, prespape, and other not very necessary things. Don Doubon made a bird from the remains of clay jokes for the sake, because since childhood knew the legend about how in the neighboring Barcelusha one unfairly convicted pilgrim miraculously escaped hanging execution: “If I am not guilty, – said the sentenced to respond to rescious, is the roasted rooster, which lies on your plate, snacks”. Rooster clapped, restoring justice, the pilgrim was released. And a few centuries later, the paint figure plus a colorful story with a light hand Doubon Kotu gave rise to a national souvenir.

If the Portugal itself can be compared with a rooster, then only in the image of the world’s best draftsman of these birds – Carlson. As you probably remember, his housing decorated with a picturesque cloth “Very lonely rooster”: Little red roasting in the corner of a large sheet. Also always held Portugal in Europe. And the point here is not so much in her painted geographical position, how much in extremely independent moral, which manifested itself from “Birth”.

The date of the founding of the Kingdom of Portugal is considered to be 1139. At that time, the Christian peoples of the Pyrenean Peninsula for more than four centuries have already dispanned their peninsulas from Muslims for more than four centuries. Reconquista was long (almost 8th centuries!) and sluggish, so nothing prevented Christians to arrange their own business in the meantime. The fact that Count Afonus Enrikesh after the next place of victory over the wrongs in 1139 declared the county of Portukhal by the Kingdom headed by himself, no one was surprised – this happened. But the fact that he and his heirs persevened, defending his independence with weapons in his hands, seemed to be riding inside – how can I have at such a time when “The enemy at the gate”, stay alone!

Despite the obvious difficulties, the Portuguese strengthened the borders and began to defend the state sovereignty from anyone who missed him. There were a lot of those: from the south, the Arabs were still seen, from the north and east, the rulers of Galicia, Leon and Castile, were threatened, the Normans could attack at any time. The chances of the Kingdom of Portugal to keep their status and land were quite small. However, a century after the formation of the Kingdom of the reconquist in the Portuguese lands was safely completed, after another one hundred years were the heads of the Castillas in the next attempt to annone the lands too independent neighbor, and after another hundred Portugal became the first in the history of the colonial power, distributing its influence in the literal sense by half.

Perhaps everything happened just because I didn’t want to get up on the way at the descendants of militant husitis. These tribes who lived in the West of the Peninsula from time immemorial, were already known to the Romans as a unknown and restless people. Perhaps played a role and the fact that as a partner and ally this country supported powerful England through the Atlantic. One way or another, Portugal is up to the end of the twentieth century, she went his way “in proud loneliness”, As we put on the foreign policy of the country more recently, in 1965, its then Prime Minister and Dictator Salazar. And when in 1986 the state still entered into the European Union, one Portuguese philosopher noticed on this: “It’s time for Portugal to Europe – this is the only place where she has not been”.

Similar “Related” caused to life a lot of curvotors on her account: someone calls Portugal notorious “backyards” Europe, someone is convinced that she really is almost the Spanish province. The last approval offends the inhabitants of this country is the most. Yes, the main milestones of the history of Portugal and Spain to a funny similarity: And there, and there were the Romans, Germans, Arabs, and those, and others passed the roads of reconquists and great geographical discoveries, in both countries in the twentieth century almost simultaneously the monarchy was replaced by dictatorship. But the similarity here is only external, and it becomes obvious with the first ticket for the famous yellow Lisbon tram, with the first thumbnail of Portvein, with the first impulse of the Atlantic wind. He, by the way, will blow us on the left all the time, because we will go from Lisbon to the north, through all the former capital of the country to the very first of them – the town of Himaraes, not far from the port, where he began “Special Path” Portugal.

V “Thickets” Lisbon

Lisbon, like many great cities, was built on the hills, but in contrast, for example, from the fields of Moscow here they are cool and arranged. The Portuguese capital can be examined in detail in detail from the viewing sites – there are many of them here. Access to the main viewpoint points is carefully thought out and, accordingly, equipped with lifts, features and tram lines. But the best view of the city opens yet not from sightseeing sites, but from the left – the southern – the shores of the River Tejo (the city itself is located on the opposite, northern). Ideally, from here and you need to enter Lisbon to see it as he appeared to the ships setting in the port of the Rent – the present city district of Belen.

Widow in love with the view, you can go to the city itself. For this you need to cross the automotive bridge connecting the shores of Tejo. The bridge is called April 25 – on this day in 1974 as a result of the so-called “Revolution of carnations” Salazar dictator mode fell. Taking advantage of the reason that the taxi driver’s brings us: in his opinion, the most outrageous phenomenon of the dictatorship period was a ban on free smoking of cigars. “Cigarettes – please, and the cigars were the privilege of the highest class. To smoke cigars, it was necessary to get a special permission that cost money. Few who could afford it, but smoking without permission – for long and imprisoned”. Holding under the control of the distribution of various kinds of privileges, such as smoking cigars, Anthony Di Oliveira Salazar restored the order of things, slightly tied with democratic trends of the beginning of the century. He generally wanted everything to be, as before, in the era of the Golden Age of Portugal, when the conquerors of the ocean returned to the Lisbon harbor with triumph, and the Portuguese rulers did not bother either external debt, nor budget deficit. The dictator-dreamer has approved its commitment to the ideals of five, the dictator-dreamer: with it, in the embankment ensemble, a monument of discoverers appeared. A concrete sail of 52 meters high is somewhat dissens with openwork buildings actually that era: the monastery of Zheronimush and the Belen Tower. But it clearly illustrates the power and strength of the myth about the golden age – the most irrelevant in the entire history of the country.

Myth 1. About the golden century

The golden age in Portugal fell at the beginning of the era of great geographical discoveries: the end of XV – the beginning of the XVI century. That was the time of the unprecedented, but deserved greatness of Portugal, the time of the happy kings, brilliant poets and courageous heroes of navigators, who then threw a challenge to fate, going to the dangerous way to the glory of their country.

It all started with the fact that Joan I is the Great, who, according to the poet, “not who was already fighting on earth”, went to the ocean towards Africa for the assimilation of Moroccan Corsaars. Taking in 1415 the city of Seuts on the North African coast gave the beginning of the Portuguese Empire.

In the first overseas goiter, the king was accompanied by sons. One of them is infant Enrique – and there is the main hero of the myth. He became known to the world as Heinrich the navigator, although the marine caress with his father will remain his first and last journey around the sea. The infant nevertheless he deserved his nickname: he not only interviewed all the travels of travelers, painted navigation cards, but also broke up in the compass and astrolabian device. It was he created a legendary naval school in sagersche. His efforts and its funds were prepared by the first sea expeditions of Portuguese along the western coast of Africa.

Madeira, Azores, Golden Beach is just the beginning … In 1486, Bartolome Diash envelopes African Continent – Cape of Good Hope is conquered. In 1498, Vasco da Gama opens the sea route to India, in the 1500th Cabral reaches the shores of Brazil. Once Heinrich Navigator Silk knew the sailors to the same caravels designed by him, causing to swim for the Cape Bohador, where, by believing, lay pervasion “Green Sea Mraka”. Now the seekers of adventure and profit by the thousands themselves arrive in the country. And from it the world, black slaves are diverged from the golden shore, spices with Molukski Islands, Indian tea and Chinese porcelain from Macau.

So Portugal magically turned from a long depthion to the center of the world. But more important than new lands and mythical riches was the indisputable glory of pioneers. She and “Subtyural” Portuguese at all difficult moments, which became more and more as starting from the second half of the XVI century, the golden age clone to the sunset: a small country could not manage gigantic colonies.

Today’s traveler sees only the fragments of the brilliant Lisbon Epoch of the Golden Age – the cloudy November morning of 1755, the earthquake overnight turned him into ruins. Some of San George’s fortress remained at the top of one of the hills, the Cathedral, who lost the tower in a shaking, similar to the skeleton of the dinosaur of the cozet of the monastery of Carmelitis, and a miraculous. Here in commemoration of the safe return of Vasco da Gama from India on the site of a small chapel of the patroness of Sailors of St. Mary Bethlehem (“Bethlehem” Portuguese sounds like “Belen”) Manuel I laid the monastery of the Jeronimites (Zheronimush), and for the protection of the Harbor put a beacon-beam.

Since then, a lot of water has flowed, not only in the figurative sense. So, the Belensky Tower, built at the beginning of the XVI century in the middle of the river, now stands at the very shore. One of the tower windows gathered a whole crowd – visitors impatiently impass, waiting for other curiosity let us free a narrow slot. From there you can see the head of the rhino, which is decorated with one of the four tower supports. Probably, it was also crowded in front of the pier. People then, on May 20, 1515, when the whole city was going to lay on the unprecedented overseas monster Ganda. So the Portuguese sailors were called, following the Hindus, rhinos, since the Latin Rhinocerus has long forgotten since these animals last brought the ancient Romans to Europe.

Ganda has safely transferred a long journey from India, but at the other end of the world a destruction was waiting for him. King Manuel I is happy, who had to constantly remove the papal courtyard to save the colonies for Portugal, did the move “Koniem” (that is, in this case, the rhino) – hindering himself, he sent the beast of the intrigued dad to the Roman Leon X. In the way, Ganda died tragically, but his image was immortalized by Albrecht Durer heard about him in the famous engraving “Rhinoceros” and Portuguese masters in the bas-relief of the Belen Tower.

Expressive Portuguese barely managed “Fix” Miracles opened by the oceans. In the neighborhood of the monastery of Zheronimush – the present “rue” Fantastic images: carved monkeys and dragons, lianas and plexuses of marine ropes. In the textbooks on the history of the arts, all these lateral beasts and ropes are referred to “Manuelin” (named King, who commanded erect the above monastery). In Lisbon, they are woven into the architectural fabric of the whole old city. However, the marine theme continues to be used by modern architects and designers: many Lisbon new buildings resemble palm forests and caravels of opening times. In general, according to the abundance of water theme, the Portuguese capital has no equal. What is not surprising: after all, this is embodied in the stone a reminder of that time when the Portuguese first dared to challenge the ocean.

Parallel Worlds

Tejo, like all the major Rivers of Portugal, is born in Spain and crosses the peninsula from East to West. All the way to the Atlantic Ocean – that in Spanish territory, that in Portuguese – the longest Peninsula River is doing on hilly and fertile valleys, planted with olives, cork oaks, sunflowers and wheat. The informal capital of the Portuguese Hitter and the historical province of Alenteju (literally – “In Troje”) Evora is considered. For her, we deviate from the course “strictly north” and make a hook 150 kilometers east.

The history of Portugal is often read as a permanent confrontation of Spain. In Evore, however, the confrontation is not expressed – at least externally.

In the same way as in the next side of the border of the Spanish Regional Center of Merida, here in the morning and to lunch on the central square are local old old people. They are also exchanged news and watch life. True, if you look around, then one small difference is still there: almost everyone on the head has a wide cap like those that we called “aerodrome”. In Spain, such clothes are not worn twenty years.

Central Square in Evore is named after Zhirald Peshtany, more famous for Girald Fearless. This Valiant Fidalgu Times the reconquists guessed his senory and the king and was forced to escape from Christian Portugal. He deserved forgiveness only when, by beating Evuru from Mavrov, he presented the keys to the Portuguese monarch. And again, parallel: a very similar history of the century used to happen with the legendary Sita Campador in the service of the Castilian King (then the reason for reconciliation was the taking of Valencia). By the way, Zhiraldu Peshtan had to Castille Sid a long relative.

In addition, Evora offers exactly the same set of historical monuments as many cities of Spain, say, the same Merida. This, firstly, mandatory Roman ruins – in the case of Evora, the columns of the Ancient Roman temple Diana. Next, something of the period of Arabic dominion, such as the local Moorish gates. And finally, the cathedral started in the Romanesque style, and finished in Gothic. In Evore, he is the largest in Portugal.

“Highlight” cities, however, is considered one “Very special chapel” In another church – San Francischka, about what the conspiratorist tells me our guide named Armandin. She seems to be the order of my Portuguese-Spanish analogies, and she pulls out a trump card from the sleeve: “Capella Ossush”, that is “Chapel of bones”, In the XVI century, finished from the inside of five thousand skeletons designed to resemble the Franciscians about death. “We, bones lying here, waiting for your”, – says the inscription above the entrance, the walls are staring with empty orders, and it seems to be heard, as an invisible dust appears from the columns. Armandina triumphs, but I remember that a bit of Capel, built by four centuries earlier, is in the Church of St. Mary in the town of Vibbors near the Spanish city of Valladolid. The skulls there, however, smaller, and the inscription is not so macabric: “I was the same as you, you will become the same as me. Everything ends so. Remember this and do not sin”.

However, this time I prefer to keep silent, so as not to upset the Armandine: apparently, she is not at all close to ideas “Iberism”. The essence of this political and cultural movement, originated in the XVI century, is that two such countries related to all of the country, like Spain and Portugal, must unite. A few options were offered – with the capital in Madrid, with the capital in Lisbon, with the capital in third place. The activists of the movement was even on the occasion developed by a four-color Iberian flag.

According to the latest statistical polls, almost half of the Spaniards want such an union, and only 28% of their neighbors who look with pessimism to build experience “Iberism” In a separate village in the Portuguese-Spanish border. In fact, the villages are two: the one is located from the Spanish side, called the upper rionor, with Portuguese – Lower Rionar. In 2005, it was decided to put an experiment in the spirit of time – to unite the rionologists with the general management, supply, financing and taxation authorities. The good-neighborly relations that have developed for centuries between the lower and the upper rioners, have already begun to deteriorate, and the Portuguese observers are confident that the experiment is doomed to failure.

Differences for the idea of ​​unification by the Portuguese Clear: their country never threatened independence of Spain, but Spain Portugal – regularly. So, from 1580 to 1640, the Portuguese crown was usurped by Spanish Monarch Philip II. This period of the Portuguese consider the most bitter in their history, and only confidence helped him to endure it. After all, there was alzhabarrot.

Myth 2. About Alzubarot

The first decisive attempt to subjugate the Portugal of the Castilian crown was carried out at the end of the XIV century. Taking advantage of the death of the Portuguese king and the favor of the queen, and also completely legally “Designed” Your claims to the Portuguese throne in the form of matrimonial plans for the young herenation, Juan I introduced the troops. The country rose on the rates and actually conducted the elections of the alternative king, who became the namesake of the aggressor Joan I – the Royal Bastard and Master of Influential Avisi Order.

An iconic battle between both sides occurred on August 14, 1385 in the town of Alzubarot halfway between Lisbon and Porto. With an incredible numerical superiority of the Castillas (by one sources, 100 thousand against 60, on others – 23 against 7) ​​the Portuguese won a brilliant victory.

Of course, Alzubarot was a victory not only spirit, but also tactics. Enontending Portuguese Against the battlefield: pulled deep in the ground “Wolf Jama”, which destroyed the slender ranks of the powerful cavalry of the enemy. However, details “Equal war” are not part of the myth about altobarrot – this is already the Military Historians have done.

Tell me who your friend

A small town of Sintra 30 kilometers north of Lisbon is also a kind of capital: in the stuffy summer months and in disturbing moments, such as the epidemic of plague, kings preferred to manage the country from here. Come here best on the car – otherwise all these palaces, park complexes and rich estates do not inspect. Driving my friend, Miguel, Spaniard, who on occasion was in Lisbon. We go along the ocean “Portuguese Riviere” – past the resort towns with rustling, like waves, names: Cascais, Estoril, Karkavelush … Miguel’s road knows very well: before he rested with his family in these villages every year – in the 1980s in Spain, it was considered a special chic.

Nevertheless, the word, which for any Portuguese sounds the thunder of the victorious Litavr – Alzubarot, – Miguel hears the first time. I intentionally handing out the circumstances of the defeat of Castillas. Hearing that the part of the English archers took part on the side of Portugal, he triumphantly declare: “Of course, the Portuguese would never cope if it were not for the British”. “English” The topic pops up for the morning for the second time. For the first time, she sounded when the shy employee of the car rental was introduced by Nelson.

The Spaniards of the British traditionally disliked, and even more so Nelson, who in the trafalgar battle of the observation of the final wreck of a spanish fleet by that time. Portugal Same “put” In the British from the very beginning – the support of such a powerful ally more than once cooled the territorial claims of their neighbors, “Friends” with french. Geopolitical model balance “Couple on a couple” – Spain and France against Portugal and England – collapsed during Napoleonic Wars. Spain, deceived and cunning, Spain, had to be released by Duke Wellington, who arrived at the help of Union Portugal. Just in the Kelush Palace in the vicinity of Sintra, which we pass without stopping, Wellington took the surrender of the commander of the Napoleonic army Juno.

A brief but intensive struggle for parking in the center of Sintra – and we are drawn into a continuous human stream. On Saturdays there is an incredible cluster of tourists. Perhaps the city orchestra is abandoned on the same occasion. I recognize the melody “Portugize” – National Gymna. The anthem, by the way, is also associated with the British: in the original version of 1890 in the chorus instead “against guns – go ahead” He called to go “forward” “against the British”. Ironically, the anthem was written at that very year when the allies, without sharing the African colonies, were quarreled for a joke. Apart from this annoying episode, England and Portugal since 1386, now six centuries have already connected the most ancient in history and at this time the acting diplomatic agreement on friendship and cooperation.

Myth 3. About Sebastian welcome

Sebastian was a painful family offense, mired in interface marriages. However, the Acts of the Great Affairs, carved with gold letters, did not give him peace – they rummed that he even ordered to open their tombs, perhaps, looking for inspiration on feats. Anyway, the king conceived to arrange a hike against the Muslims of the Northern Coast of Africa.

In June 1578, half thousands of sailboats and a 15-thousand troops under the personal leadership of the crazy monarch with Pompey went from Lisbon to Tangier. Two months later, the Portuguese army in the battle of Alcazar-Kibe was broken by the head alone, and the King of Sebastian mysteriously disappeared. The battle-saved battle was told that for the last time it seemed to be seen in the attack, and it seems to be wounded, and maybe and killed. King of Spain Philip II, using what is called, the case, unhindered annexed “Defended” Country. The Portuguese army was almost entirely lost in the gloomy battle, and the story with the missing king so demoralized the Portuguese that he did not meet resistance. So Portugal for 60 years lost sovereignty.

Although a couple of months after the African defeat, the same Philip II announced that the Arabs returned the body of the killed Sebastian and it was buried in his homeland, the Portuguese did not believe him. They knew exactly: the king is alive, he will soon return and save Portugal immediately from all – from Spain, poverty, wars and fault. Time went, the physical appearance of Sebastian, who was now called not otherwise as welcome, gradually erased from the memory of citizens. So suddenly not “Cross” The king, in the country went secret lists to take it: “the left side of the body is shorter than right, but it is almost imperceptibly”. Or – “On the Mizinza right legs there is a wart, sometimes increasing, as if the sixth finger”. Or – “Mystery sign”, and “The sign is very secret, which will be announced when you need”. On charges of impostor, at least four people were executed, one of them successfully pretended by Sebastian as much as 5 years.

Games feelings and mind games

Located here, in Sintra, the estate of Kinta da Regaleir, in fact, does not have a legendary king, since it was built after 4th century after the national tragedy. But this is only at first glance. For the owner of the estate Antonio Carvalo Monteiro was not only a millionaire, a collector of butterflies and just a clever, but also convinced “Sebastian”. Like many progressive intellectuals of the late 19th century, he believed in the Messianic destination of the Portuguese people and waited for the onset of the fifth empire, implying something among the average between the kingdom of God on Earth and the historical golden age.

Kint Yes Regaleira, “Stuffed” secret and explicit symbols of Freemasonry, Sebastianism, fifth empire and scientific progress, and even more – adjacent “philosophical” Garden with grottoes, labyrinths, ponds and wells, at the bottom of which were conducted by the initiation ceremonies, – a place where it is easy to feel myself mystic. Everywhere the mysterious signs and instructions are measured, and the director of the museum, Professor Silva, who kindly volunteered to accompany us on the estate-palace, discovers suspicious similarity with the owner of the house in youth. Already saying goodbye, I ask him: “And you yourself believe in the fifth empire?” – “I believe not only in the fifth empire, but still in the ghosts and the fibness of Our Lady”, – Professor, must believe, joked, but, as you know, in every joke.

Anyway, the mystical ideas of the most different sense and origin always found fertile soil in Portugal: whether the Celtic substrate said, or simply, as it usually happens “backyards”, – no one really controlled that there, actually, is going. No wonder the only place on the peninsula, where the Most Holy Mother of God appeared, – the neighborhood of the Portuguese town of Fatima. Finally, it is here, in the city of Thomar, found shelter after the defeat of their orders of the Templars.

Myth 4. About the last Crusaders

At the beginning of the XIV century, France delayed the smoke of fires, on which accused of heresy of the Templars burned. Even where their services would have to be quite by the way, under pressure from the papal throne, the Order was disbanded and everywhere prohibited. Only the Portuguese king Dinish did not become “Cutting hot”, By indulging inquisition. He simply founded a new order – the Order of Christ, who inherited all the property of the Templars. Standing temples began to flow into Thomar, where new in the Templary crosses were drawn new.

Don Dinish was a very far-sighted king: Having arranged a trick with a new Order, he, besides, still at the dawn of the XIV century, put the groves of ships pines. And in 1420 the Order of Christ headed – who would you think? – Heinrich Margin. While the whole of Europe feverishly sought the treasures of the Templars and from the mouth of the mouth passed non-liberty about the sacred graveyard, Portuguese temples, headed by a tireless infanta, were preparing for new Crusades – through the ocean. Karavella went to the sea under the alami crosses of the Order of Christ on the inflated sails.

Former Templary, and then the castle of the Order of Christ in Tomara, over the centuries expanded and completed, turning into the whole city in the end. This castle is really a giant and – quite in the spirit of the first owners – its riddles opens reluctantly. It would be necessary at least a week to get around all the transitions, galleries and basements. We only inhaled this saturated air mystery – and descended into the city.

Here are ordinary people along the streets, a flea market has unfolded on the main street, in souvenir shops instead of roosters sell baskets-tabuler in miniature. In full size, such baskets filled with bread and decorated with flowers are real towers. Them during the holiday tabulers are not too fragile Portuguese girls on their heads, and the height “towers” must be equal to the growth of carrier. This ancient holiday dates back to the cult of the Holy Spirit, which the church at one time declared heresy, but in Portugal, the persecuted cult was and remains one of the most revered in the people.

If Tabulirus is an example of a stubborn commitment to traditions, then an example of progress, of course, has long been serving Coimbra – here is the first in the country and one of the first universities in Europe (founded in 1290). We sluggishly wearing a high hill, where the only until the 1910th focus of the Enlightenment in Portugal sent powerful mind signals. At the University of Vacation, so there are no students. But everything else – as it should be: clock tower and bell, lush library, ancient professorial hall. In the university church, all the walls and ceiling are decorated with ceramic panels. There is nothing to be surprised here – all: all: the facades of buildings, the metro station, church altars, but in Coimbra University, it is relevant as anywhere.

Ceramics, since it was brought to the Arabs peninsula, became a favorite tool of the decoration and in Spain, but only the Portuguese managed to turn this simple art into a powerful enlightenment weapon. And it is not only “Ceramic” Saints in churches. The walls of the audience also decorated ceramic panels, only completely to other plots – for example, on the topic of Euclidean geometry. Complex for the perception of formulas painted on the faience tiles and saw on the walls. Portuguese “Azuleju” those and famous – they replaced books and popularized all sorts of knowledge.

Already in the evening, coming from Coimbra in the port, I think that in Portuguese, the tradition and innovation, archaic and innovation are combined in some unknown persistent proportions. Thus, the country takes the 7th place in the world to use computer and other new technology – and a little further along the coast in the village of Nazare’s wife Fishermen still, while her husband is in the sea, wearing seven skirts one to another … perhaps, in the most concentrated form all these “National contradictions” I absorbed and expressed the character of Portuguese folklore – Ze-Puvigno.

Myth 5. About Ze Puvigno

The name of this character can be translated as a jose-population. He was invented by Raphael Bordal Pinaire in 1875. As it should be a caricaturist, the Bordeau has created a cartoon to the Portuguese people: a hatched man in the country typical for the north of the country “Braghesh” In an indecent gesture folds hands. This gesture is addressed to his government, which makes him what he wants, because it is very easy to deceive. Ze-Puvigno believes in all wonders and non-residents, including those that are shown on TV, but sometimes still remembers that he belongs not “Folod”, and the great people, and already long ago waiting for him to save him.

After the first publications in a satirical journal “La Lanternna” Ze-Puvigno immediately “Started” as a collective image of a person “From the people”. It was done the most opposite features: called apathetic and illiterate, thick-skinned and “Village”, But at the same time the good and patriot. However, Portuguese “Ivanushka” They love even those who scold. It is natural: how not to love yourself?

Country of the setting sun

The first capital of the country according to the logic of things was to become a port. Ancient settlement at the mouth of the Douro River, which poetic Greeks called “Calea”, “beautiful”, and prosaic Romans – “Portus”, “port”, had all the chances of becoming the main city of Portugal – after all, even the name did he give. And the name of the random does not happen: the very first, still dependent on the neighboring kingdom of Leon, the county of Portukhal arose with the weakness of Mavrov. The Arab Fortress in 868 took the Galician Count and Wassal of the Leon King Vimar with the fight. But this hero, the monument to which is still in the port, chose to settle down – in Himarasha (formerly Vimaraes, named Vimary to transfer), which became the very first capital. There was also born and baptized the first king of Portugal Afonus Enrikesh, there was the first “hassle” With the neighbors about independence, from there the portuguese military went out to decrease the unfair fame in the battle with alto-barrot ..

As long as we went to Himaraes, he was filled in my presentation of such a symbolic, mystical, mythological and syncretic significance that I began to suspect that this city is simply no. Therefore, when I saw an incentive, white plaster or plastic, the inscription of the pseudo-like font: Portugal was born here, – I calmed down and delighted me.

Above “The cradle of the nation” – Little, cozy Himaraine – “reign” The same castle. San Mighel Castle, who built the very first king of Portugal, repeatedly moved from hand to hand, rebuilt, was restored, in general, you will not really understand where to look “sources” Total. However, there is one tool that the character of the most famous modern Portuguese writer Jose Saramago: To feel the spirit of this place, you need to sit on huge, wet boulders on the top of the castle hill and drop your head upstairs. “Stones, sky over them and this wind, which flies gusts, carries everything ever uttered Portuguese words, all the first and last sighs, whisper of the deep river” – this is Portugal.

… the bus to Lisbon sighs hard, going down the steep streets of Himaraes. Somewhere shouting the latter today, the turn hides the castle from us on the hill, and we no longer see how sunset rays draw his silhouette. Only now we can say that the night has come throughout Europe: “Country of the setting sun” – And together with her – spent another day.

 

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