The story of Pedro & Inês

It was a time, because all love stories begin with "once upon a time" ... D. Pedro I, heir to the throne of Portugal, son of the king D. Afonso IV and D. Beatriz of Castile.

After a failed attempt to marry the Princess D. Branca, because she seemed very ill, the King chooses another suitor for his son, to D. Constança Manoel, daughter of the nobleman D. João Manoel, chronicler and poet, lord of several towns and castles, descendant of the kings of Castile, Leon and Aragon. The wedding takes place by proxy in 1936 and D. Constança reaches Évora, in 1340, in the weapons company of men and their handmaidens including D. Inês de Castro.

This choise, nonetheless political, was not to the liking of the prince D. Pedro that remained distante of his wife after the wedding. However D. Pedro soon falls for the lady in waiting of his wife. The beautiful Inês had noble lineage, bastard daughter of D. Pedro de Castro of Galicia and granddaughter of King D. Sancho IV of Castile. Thus cousin D. Pedro. It is said that Inês is blond, with abundant hair, extremely elegant, of plump and toned body that earned her the nickname "Heron's Lap". D. Pedro, barely saw, it soon became overwhelmed with passion, this passion, which was reciprocal.

The affair was quickly made public and D. Constança in an attempt to end it invites D. Inês to be godmother of the son that she was carrying, because that spiritual kinship become the relationship incestuous in God's eyes.

However, but that did not stop D. Pedro because nothing could keep him apart from his beloved. This romance was very bably seen by King. Afonso IV, not only for diplomatic reasons, but also, due to the assumed friendship between D. Pedro and the ambitious brothers of D. Inês, Álvaro Peres de Castro and Fernando de Castro. These ones, with strong claims to power, arranged for D. Pedro to declared to be pretender to the throne of Castile and Leon, which strongly displeased D. Afonso IV wanted to keep Portugal neutral and independent.

The king D. Afonso IV sends thus expel, in 1344, D. Inês from court and forced her to leave the country. She then takes refuge then in Albuquerque's Castle near the Portuguese border, at the Castle of D. Afonso Sanches, bastard brother of D. Afonso IV that the king saw as another offense.

However, dispite the distance the two lovers continued to meet secretly and to love each other.

In 1354, D. Constance dies giving birth to her third child, the future King D. Fernando. D. Pedro then sees himself free from the wedding weight and calls back his beloved.

So he brings D. Inês to the lands of Lourinhã. He places her on a farm in Moledo, near the Hill of d'el Rei (which owes its name to D. Pedro who used to hunt on these lands), where they lived happy moments. There they had 3 children, D. Afonso, D. João and D. Dinis. However, the people do not look kindly that relationship. The situation became more acute with the arrival of the plague that the people assigned to a "curse" and laid the blame on poor Inês. The kingdom, until then prosperous, begins to impoverish. The fields, once fertile, are now abandoned and people flee from this fearful omen.

To visit… in Moledo would have existed the Hunting Palace, nowaday only remains a wall and a well. However, the population wanted to keep alive the passage of the two lovers through this location so we can find in the village several statues alluding to the loves of Pedro & Inês.

Therefore, D. Pedro decides to leave with D. Inês and settled in Quinta do Canidelo, currently Vila Nova de Gaia. Pedro gave her the patronage of the Church of S. André of Canidelo and install it with all the honors and facilities. There was born a daughter in 1353, D. Beatriz.

To visit… At the old Quinta do Canidelo now there is a house of the eighteenth century, but retains much of the primordial lands. Nowadays there is a farm dedicated to the production of organic herbs "O Cantinho das Aromáticas" from which comes the tea on our Box Pedro & Inês. The farm can be visited from Monday to Friday, from 9 am to 6 pm. On Saturdays, from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm and from 2.30 pm to 6 pm.

A few years past, the two lovers then moved to Coimbra, to a farm near the Monastery of Santa Clara. This proximity was very badly seen by the people who did not appreciate that adultery so near Santa Clara's Convent, where the kind Queen D. Isabel of Aragon lived and had became a saint.

At the same time, Afonso IV saw with concern the existence the bastards sons of D. Pedro, that he considered to be a bad omen for the country's independence. The counselors Pêro Coelho, Álvaro Gonçalves and Diogo Lopes Pacheco feared that the ambitious brothers of the Galician could make an attempt to the life of infante D. Fernando, the rightful heir to the throne, in the case D. Inês ever became a Queen. So they pressed the king in order to eliminate this threat by ending the life of the Galician lady.

To visit… The first reference to Quinta das Lagrimas dates back to 1326, in the year when the holy Queen Isabel ordered to make a canal to carry water from the springs to the Convent of Santa Clara. The source whence I came out the water is now called "Sources of Love", for having been the scene of D loves. Pedro and D. Inês. The other spring of the property was baptized by the poet Luís de Camões in "Lusíadas" as the "Fountain of Tears", for being born from the tears of Inês as she was murdered. In the bottom of the fountain there are some peculiar red algae that give a tint of blood to the rocks. The popular tradition designates this location as the site where the beautiful Inês was murdered and her blood remained stuck to the still crimson rocks after six centuries ...

“As filhas do Mondego, a morte escura

Longo tempo chorando memoraram

E por memória eterna em fonte pura

As Lágrimas choradas transformaram

O nome lhe puseram que ainda dura

Dos amores de Inês que ali passaram

Vede que fresca fonte rega as flores

Que as Lágrimas são água e o nome amores”

The Lusiad, book III.

To visit… The springs are surrounded by a medieval garden, designed by the Landscape Arch. Cristina Castel- Branco in 2006, which recreated a garden with vegetation from the time of Pedro and Inês allowing the visitor to go on a journey through time. The romantic garden was built in 1850, is a magical place with rare and exotic species that the micro-climate of the Fifth turned into magnificent trees of giant size. Noteworthy, are two giant redwoods - Wellingtonias- planted by the Duke of Wellington and an amazing bamboo grove.

Opening Hours: Summer (16 of Mar. to 15 of Out) – 3rd Wednesday to Sunday from 10h to 19h; Winter (16 of Out. to 15 of Mar) – from Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm

Tickets: • Free Single Ticket on our Box Pedro & Inês • Single Ticket: 2,50€ • Special Ticket (< 15 and > 65 years old): 1€ • Family ticket (4 people): 5€ • Visit to the Japanese garden and tea (15am to 6 pm): 5€ • Guests: free; Phone: 918 108 232

Therefore, to 6 th of January 1355, Inês is sentenced to death in a summary judgement in Montemor-o-Velho's Castle. The next day, D. Afonso IV gets under way to Coimbra, accompanied by his armed advisers.

The legend says that in that morning something strange happened. D. Pedro had planned to go hunt. When he and his men were preparing to leave, an old black dog fierce aspect stood out of the pack and angry for no reason apparent runs toward Agnes ready to attack. D. Pedro then protects his beloved and with a single stroke kills the beast that fell on Inês feet., peppering her dress with blood.

This harbinger of death froze the blood to the audience, but D. Peter decides to leave the same for the planned hunt.

Inês was left alone great fear flooded her... and behold, the king D. Afonso IV and his counselors enter the palace and despite the pleas and cries of their children killed the beautiful Inês.

After the murder D. Inês was buried at the Church of Santa Clara to 7 th of January 1355.

To visit… The Montemor-o-Velho Castle is the largest fortification of the Mondego river and one of the most important in the country and played a key role in the consolidation of independence of what is now Portugal. From the top of its walls we have a breathtaking view of the plains and rice fields of the Mondego. Inside, find the ruins of the Chapel of St. John and the Palace of Infants, the Church of St. Mary of the Alcazaba dated of 1090, and the Town Clock Tower, built in 1877.

Opening Hours: Every day from 10 am to 5 pm (winter time); Every day from 10 am to 8 pm (summer time).

Phone: 239 687 316

Free admission.

The murder of D. Inês had a violent effect on D. Pedro who raised an army against the king his father and begins a civil war. As for the king Afonso IV marched northward ahead of his troops. Only the mother's intervention, D. Beatriz, managed to D. Pedro to make peace with his father months later.

In 1357, Afonso IV dies and D. Pedro became king. He immediately seeks revenge on the murderers of his beloved, denying the promise made years before to his father and mother.

In June 1360, declares in Canterbury, before witnesses, that would have secretly married D. Inês, in 1354, in Bragança thus legitimizing the couple's children and legalizing the marriage.

Thanks to a contract with his cousin, he managed the extradition of Pêro Coelho and Álvaro Gonçalves. Lopes Pacheco, that one, managed to escape to Aragon and finally found refuge in France.

They were delivered to the King in Santarém, and this revenge sedente ordered the preparation of a banquet as he sent the two prisoners tied to a pole. Then orders the executioner to withdraw the heart by heart the Pero Coelho and back to Álvaro Gonçalves. After, states that commanded to bring onions and vinegar and cracked the heart of both ....

Meanwhile, King had built in Alcobaça, a beautiful tomb to collect the remains of what, he said himself says, have been his wife and wanted to dignify after death.

In 2 of April 1361, the body of D. Inês de Castro was moved from the Monastery of Santa Clara of Coimbra to the Monastery of Alcobaça, accompanied by a procession of more than a thousand men and women with lighted candles.

Yet, according to tradition, the king placed the corpse of D. Inês on a throne, placed the royal crown on her skull and forced all the nobles, under threat of death, and to kiss the hand of the dead queen.

D. Pedro died in January 1367. I will not, ordered that his body should be conducted to Alcobaça and there laid in the tomb that had built together with the one of D. Inês de Castro in 1360, and are still together today "until the end of the world".

To visit… The Monastery of Santa Maria de Alcobaça, also known as Royal Abbey of Santa Maria de Alcobaça is the first fully Gothic work built on Portuguese soil. The construction began in 1178 by Cistercian monks. Its most emblematic pieces are the tombs of D. Pedro and D. Inês that much avail for the classification of the monastery as World Heritage by UNESCO, in 1989.

D. Pedro ordered the construction of the tombs around 1360, but its not known exactly who is the author, but today constitutes one of the most important funerary structures of the Middle Ages still exist.

The tombs were first placed in the south transept of the church's arm with his feet facing east, and afterwards, were transferred to the Hall of Tombs and placed face to face. In 1956, were again placed at the transepto, the one of D. Inês in the North arm and D. Pedro's tomb at the southern, such as, was desired in his will because in the judgment day when the two lovers resurrected they would look eye to eye.

The underlying of D. Peter is the king of long dress costume and sword in his left hand, being flanked by angels that support his head and shoulders. The front represents the life of S. Bartholomew protector of stutterers because it says that D. Pedro was very stutterer. The frontal side represents the Wheel of Fortune, where scenes of the life of the two lovers were carved as well as the Wheel of Life. What is written in the legend to the tomb of the fund is still controversial but mean, according to Vieira Nativity, "Until the End of the World". The feet of the tomb represents the "Good Death" of D. Pedro.

At the underlying of D. Inês this is honorificada as Queen with crowned head and supported by a canopy. In this tomb, the two front and the face of the head represent the life of Christ, from the Annunciation to Calvary. In the face of the feet is described the Last Judgment with the resurrection of the dead on the last day. A arc of D. Inês rests on six hybrid figures of animals with human face. It is believed that it represent the killers of D. Agnes and the ladies of the court who conspired against it and will now have to endure for eternity the weight of guilt.

Opening Hours: Summer (April to September) – from 9 am to 7 pm; Winter (October to March) – from 9 am to 5 pm

Entry: The visit to the tombs is free.