A dream from heaven

In Portugal, tradition teaches us about our past. In every corner we can find a legend that reminds us the good and the bad things of our lives. Suddenly, someone is telling us another story. Listen…

The Castle of Óbidos smells like chocolate. Every year the people of Óbidos celebrate the Chocolate Fair. They invite everyone! Foreigners or not, we all can taste the very good chocolate and the famous ginginha, a very sweet drink served on a chocolate cup.

We can also see the greatest constructions in chocolate. A different theme every year inspires the artists to create a world of chocolate. Inside this world you can even taste and feel the emotions of being strong and sweet at the same time. This is the power of the chocolate…

Although this famous festival, Óbidos is known among its inhabitants by its legend from the time of the kings. Sometimes older people wonder if the foreigners realize how important is the back door of the Castle. And what about the name of this door? Do they know it? Older people like to spell it, saying that this door is so well known at the village as The Door of Betrayal. They whisper it slowly and we feel tempted to sit down and listen to the legend.

Once upon a time, when the king D. Anfoso Henriques was still alive, there was a dark night. The moon has suddenly run away and the knights of the king could not see the stars. The Moors had conquered the fortified city and they resisted for more than months. The Christians wanted to take the village back and give it back to the kingdom of Portugal. D. Afonso Henriques and Gonçalo Mendes, the Leader, had decided to attack the Moors next night, when the moon will be back.

All knights were sleeping when the Leader heard a female voice. He woke up and saw a woman. She asked him to speak to the king because she had something very important to say about her dream. She used to live in the castle, but, once she had never met her parents, she didn’t know if she was Moor or Christian.

The Leader took the young woman to the king D. Afonso Henriques. She told him she had a dream three times. On this dream a man with a kind look and brown beard told her that the King of Portugal should put together all his knights to go for a surprise attack at the main entrance of the Castle. Then, the Leader should take ten knights to the back of the castle, where there was a door the girl would open. The men with the kind look promised the village of Óbidos to the Christian.

The King D. Afonso Henriques believed in miracles and with all his heart he believed the dream of this young girl. He planed the attack exactly as she had told him. The next morning, the village of Óbidos was given back to Portugal and to the Christian.

The young girl was never seen again. The back door of the castle was known after this fight as The Door of the Betrayal.