Capela do Senhor da Pedra

"From a distance, it looks as if the Atlantic will swallow it up on the first stormy night, but three centuries have passed since its construction and it still stands firm. Perhaps it is because of the rock on which it stands - a place of worship for over two thousand years. As the inscription on the tile mosaic framed at the entrance to the chapel attests, the giant stone originally housed a pagan temple, possibly Celtic. When Christianity arrived in Portugal, efforts were made to Christianise the territory and free it from its pagan roots. The site where the Capela do Senhor da Pedra now stands was then chosen to "reclaim" the land from heretics, but despite the conversion to the Christian faith, secret ceremonies linked to pagan worship still take place on full moon nights. It is said that it is common to find melted candles left by neo-pagan worshippers on the rocks and sand next to the chapel, but I did not see any. A not-so-secret ceremony is the pilgrimage that commemorates the Lord of the Stone, a festival whose origins are lost in time and which takes place annually on the sandy terrain of the beaches of Miramar. It begins on the Sunday of the Holy Trinity and continues until the following Tuesday. The procession is the highlight of the festivities, which also include the traditional rusgas (dances) and entertainment by various popular groups. In the past, pilgrims would walk to the chapel early in the morning, sometimes forming rusgas with the people who gathered along the way. The women would carry the “countess” on their heads, where they would pack their lunch, and the men would carry wine in gourds or even in ox horns. After fulfilling their promises at the place of worship, they would head off 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 attested by the existence, within a radius of many kilometres around, of pilgrimage songs dedicated to him. There are songs to Senhor da Pedra in places such as Cinfães and Paredes, among many others. This means that pilgrims came from far and wide to the Senhor da Pedra festivals. The belief in 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 a fulfillment of a promise, by someone who survived a shipwreck on the high seas and was saved by a wave that carried him to the rock. Others believe that the image of Christ ended up there, brought by the sea itself and “one fine day landed on that rock where, later, the chapel was built”. Others still swear that when the inhabitants of Gulpilhares were preparing to build a chapel dedicated to Senhor da Pedra, in the area known as arraial, a mysterious light appeared on the rocks by the sea. Every night the light would reappear, leading the inhabitants to believe that it was a sign from Heaven. For this reason, they gave up on building the chapel in the village and decided to build the chapel on the spot where the light used to appear. Another famous legend associated with this place is that one foggy morning, D. Sebastião stuck his horse's hooves into one of the rocks, but ended up turning back without going onto Portuguese beaches - thus explaining the two rounded and parallel marks that are supposedly there. But whatever we may believe is easily forgotten when faced with the extraordinary view of the beach and that chapel located in a cinematic way on top of a rock lashed by the waves of the sea. It is no wonder that this place was voted the tenth most beautiful beach in Europe by the organization “European Best Destinations”."