The Vila do Bispo museum archaeologist Ricardo Soares continues our journey back in time to the region’s fascinating history.
One God, many people …
In Vila do Bispo, the Middle Ages were a time of social vitality when the region of Cape St Vincent played a pivotal role as a connecting point between the Mediterranean world, the Atlantic and the territories of North Africa.
Its sheltered coves and the natural harbour formed by the Martinhal-Baleeira bay, with the availability of drinking water nearby in the Mareta area, meant that Sagres established itself as an obligatory stop-off point for sailors travelling between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
These travellers carried exotic products, news, novelties and knowledge. They also brought different people who settled here, importing different cultures, new habits and different cults. Multiculturalism is one of the characteristics of Vila do Bispo’s identity, a phenomenon still very much present today. Over time, the settlement depended on migratory patterns, which ensured the population’s maintenance and the local culture’s enrichment.
Multiculturalism in life and death
In Vila do Bispo, several pieces of evidence have been found that prove the diversity of cultures that coexisted in the territory during the Middle Ages. In addition to traces of settlement, artefacts document different religions and funerary practices. Probably recovered from the old cemetery in the Vila do Bispo churchyard, and now displayed in our museum, are two funerary steles (a stone slab) and headstones carved from Silves sandstone.
Dating back to the beginning of the 15th century and discovered during works carried out in the church of Vila do Bispo in the early 1960s, a rare anthropomorphic sarcophagus lid with inscriptions referring to the Jewish funerary cult is also on display. You can see a hexagonal engraving on its base, the Star of David. We also present a tile (tegulae) with typed decorations, part of a set that structured a rectangular grave, where the skeletal remains of an adult and a child were identified. This grave was part of a Mozarabic necropolis identified near the menhir of Padrão in Raposeira, made up of ten tombs of different types. Another grave in this necropolis revealed the remains of two children, along with a votive (funerary) deposit that we present in the display case in this room. The group of graves studied is part of the late antiquity chronologies, around the 8th century.
The prince, modernity and globalisation …
Prince Henry the Navigator was a unique figure in world history. Son of King João I, he was born in Porto on 4 March 1394 and chose the town of Sagres as his home during his final years, where he died on 13 November 1460. His preference for the Sagres location to build his own village is justified in a testamentary text dated 19 September 1460, where we can read, in his own words:
“I had a town built on the other cape that is before the said cape of Sagres to those who come from west to the east, which was called Terça Naball, to which I gave the name Vila do Infante.”
The Infante refers to a pre-existing settlement in the Sagres area, the mythical Terçanabal. It was probably an abandoned medieval Islamic settlement, which we know existed under the Arabic name of Xaqris, a place name that would later give rise to the word Sagres.
D. Afonso VI and the emancipation of the territory
On 1 December 1640, the restoration of Portuguese independence began, led by the Duke of Bragança, the future King João IV. This process led to Portugal’s autonomy after 60 years of Iberian Union and domination by the Castilian Philippine dynasty.
In 1662, Martim Afonso de Melo, second Count of São Lourenço and one of the forty conspirators of the restoration (Os Quarenta Conjurados), considered his military achievements and obligations to the government fulfilled. He, therefore, asked the king to grant him Aldeia do Bispo, the settlement that seems to have given rise to present-day Vila do Bispo. After a legal dispute with the Municipality of Lagos, which had jurisdiction over the village, the king was sensitive to the nobleman’s request and granted him Aldeia do Bispo, with administrative autonomy and on the condition that it be elevated to a town.
The municipality of Vila do Bispo thus came into being by royal charter granted by King Afonso VI on 26 August 1662. Martim Afonso de Melo became Lord of Sagres and married D. Madalena da Silva, who also had an interesting connection to the region. D. Madalena was a descendant of D. Fernando Coutinho, Bishop of the Algarve.
D. Fernando was part of the embassy that King João II sent to Rome in 1493 to negotiate with Pope Alexander VI in the disputes between the Iberian crowns that would lead to the signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, a pact of powers that divided the globe into two parts. A devotee of Saint Vincent, D. Fernando Coutinho had a residence built on the cape, as well as a convent and a lighthouse tower. In addition to their spiritual occupation, the friars’ mission was to light a fire on the tower to provide light for sailors near the sacred promontory.
Property marker
A limestone landmark, believed to demarcate property (the ancient equivalent of a private property sign!), was also discovered near Vila do Bispo. On the property marker, there is an engraving of a shield with five bezantes (round discs) interpreted as the wounds of Christ, which are also represented in the five shields of the Portuguese Coat of Arms. This property marker was found in an area influenced by the toponym ‘granja’, where two other stones engraved with the same iconography were found. Granjas were agricultural properties, sometimes belonging to the clergy, the nobility and the king. Considering the symbolism inscribed on these stones, they may be landmarks of an ancient property, possibly belonging to the Bishop of the Algarve or his heirs.
Did you know?
A stele, or occasionally stela when derived from Latin, is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in the ancient world as a monument. The surface of the stele often has text, ornamentation or both. These may be inscribed, carved in relief or painted.
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Photos courtesy of Ricardo Soares
Main photo: Middle Ages, one God many people
