Friend from Barquinha
Veteran Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- None yet; perhaps the Portugese (2021?)
I was stumbling my way through a blog written (in Portuguese) by the chairperson of Barqunha concelho (municipality would be the closest, I guess, in English). Sr. Freire is a history buff, and has done a lot of research on his/my district in the last decade. One of his posts from 2012 shows a map showing 16th century pilgrimage routes through central Portugal. I thought pilgrims today might be interested in this...
Sr. Freire notes that this route was referred to already at the time of Dom Dinis 1 (considered the king who was "father" of modern Portugal)--1302. The dotted and solid lines on the map above refer to the routes of two friars, Frere Claude de Bronsevel and Dom Edme de Saulieu, in 1532 and 1533. Unfortunately, the map is cut off north of Coimbra, but it clearly shows both the Central and Interior routes, as well as some interesting routing in the Alentejo, south of the Tagus.
For those of you with an historical bent, Dom Dinis's wife was the sainted Queen Isabella, who was canonized in 1625. She is the patron saint of Coimbra, and if you should make a stop in that city, the historical Santa Clara a Velha convent just across the bridge from central Coimbra is well worth a visit!
Original blog: https://atalaia-barquinha.blogspot.com/2012/04/atalaia-e-barquinha-nos-caminhos-de.html
(Note the absence on the map of Fatima, which is a 20th-century site.)
Sr. Freire notes that this route was referred to already at the time of Dom Dinis 1 (considered the king who was "father" of modern Portugal)--1302. The dotted and solid lines on the map above refer to the routes of two friars, Frere Claude de Bronsevel and Dom Edme de Saulieu, in 1532 and 1533. Unfortunately, the map is cut off north of Coimbra, but it clearly shows both the Central and Interior routes, as well as some interesting routing in the Alentejo, south of the Tagus.
For those of you with an historical bent, Dom Dinis's wife was the sainted Queen Isabella, who was canonized in 1625. She is the patron saint of Coimbra, and if you should make a stop in that city, the historical Santa Clara a Velha convent just across the bridge from central Coimbra is well worth a visit!
Original blog: https://atalaia-barquinha.blogspot.com/2012/04/atalaia-e-barquinha-nos-caminhos-de.html
(Note the absence on the map of Fatima, which is a 20th-century site.)
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